According to Cass, we are now allies. I am as willing to argue with my allies as with my opponents, perhaps more willing; allies are more likely to have enough in common with me to be willing to be listen to my arguments. Cass does not mention Coase, also a colleague of ours at the University of Chicago Law School and arguably a classical liberal, who would have agreed. He thought economists should spend more time looking at real world economic institutions in order to better understand them. As evidence for Coase's position, I learned quite a lot relevant to the economic analysis of law in the process of researching a book on real world legal systems, past and present. The criticism is a legitimate one but Cass, unlike Coase, is not in a good position to make it. One of the ideas he is known for is 'libertarian paternalism,' structuring the choices presented to people in a way that sets the default at what the choice architect believes they should choose while leaving them free to...
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