This afternoon I visited the office of The Real Asset Co, and talked with Ralph Hazell (CEO), William Bancroft (Head of operations), and Jan Skoyles (Economist). I have hardly begun to digest the lessons I learned from what they told me. But in the meantime, let me at least supply a link to this video interview that Jan Skoyles did with Steve Baker MP, our favourite politician by some distance here at Samizdata. Jan Skoyles is living proof that you can earn a living as an "economist" without knowing an enormous pile of things which are not so.

More and more, I find myself fearing that Baker is just too good to be true, and that some frightful skeleton will one day soon come tumbling out of his closet. I have absolutely no rational basis for such fears. It is just that the man is a politician.

I recall sitting next to Baker at a Cobden Centre dinner about a year ago, and rather rudely telling him that I expect from him: absolutely nothing, on account of him being a politician. He has already far surpassed my wildest fantasies. This video interview once again had me blinking in disbelief at the sheer uncompromising sensibleness of what he was saying. I did take a nap earlier this evening. Was I dreaming again? Apparently not.