Question: **How many libertarian economists does it take to screw in a light bulb? **Answer: None. The Invisible Hand of the Market will screw in the light bulb. An old joke, yes. It came back to me after I read Konstantin Sonin’s excellent reflection today. Konstantin is puzzled by the collective silence of Russia’s libertarian economists. In normal times these comrades are very loud indeed, but now they’ve clammed up and are watching as the flame of the financial crisis is generously blasted with the Budget Fire Hose. One could speculate about saving the banking system, but when taxpayers’ money is being handed out to crooked investment bankers whose entire business, it turns out, was built on mindless market pumping ("we grow 40% a year, show excellent results, and collect enormous bonuses for superb management"), that’s getting downright gothic. Personally, I’m not entirely thrilled that my share of the Russian federal budget is going toward preserving the plasma monitor, the Vertu phone, the job, and the enormous salary of one of these eggheaded windbags. As recently as September 10, Vladimir Mau, rector of the Academy of National Economy, published an article in Vedomosti titled "Liberalism: The Medicine Nobody Likes". The thrust of the article boils down to: "Both our own experience and that of the West clearly show that neoliberal prescriptions are resorted to when a country finds itself in a severe crisis and all other prescriptions have been discredited." I’m very much looking forward to the moment when Vladimir Mau and the other ultra-market types—who, without any doubt, represent the absolute mainstream of economic thought in Russia—raise their voices now that neoliberal prescriptions have been forgotten, while yesterday’s authors of those prescriptions are shouting: "More liquidity! Let’s pour another hundred trillion trillion quadrillion into stocks and other damn securities!" So far, the only thing I’ve noticed is an irritated comment by Butrin from Kommersant (a major Russian business daily) on his LiveJournal. Nothing at all from the others yet.