Public Spoken

MIC Contest: Entry III

(for an explanation of the MIC Contest, please click on the link above)

My favorite anti-every-forecaster story, especially at an inter-American conference, concerns the Canadian politician who once said that his Canada faced a limitless future because it was going to combine American efficiency with the British system of government and French culture. And then, under his premiership, the poor devils temporarily got British efficiency. And the French system of government. And American culture.

The author is the former deputy editor of The Economist and author of The 2025 Report: A concise history of the Future 1975-2025. The essay in question comes from a speech given at a 1992 conference in Mexico City hosted by the Cato Institute and the Centro de Investigaciones Sobre la Libre Empresa.