Lost in the news about Katrina was the passing of Jude Wanniski, the originator of Supply Side Economics, and economic adviser to President Reagan.

TCS was the first to eulogize him here

James Glassman of the American Enterprise Institute writes:

One of the reasons I was drawn to Wanniski was his faith in the innate intelligence of average citizens, both American and otherwise. Here too, he was ahead of his time. The left wing, which has turned more and more elitist, now rejects ideas like Social Security personal accounts because, it believes, most people won’t be able to invest reasonably.