Mr. Kahn has shuttled over the years between academia and government, but he

has nonetheless retained, as Mr. Buckley puts it, a "preference to speak in plain English." He knows the American economy inside out, and he and his host take us on an exhilarating tour of everything from the Post Office to agriculture to AT&T to the airlines (the Civil Aeronautics Board--which Mr. Kahn had once chaired, with the mandate of abolishing it [cf. Firing Line #S337]--had just ceased to exist a month earlier). One sample: "There are external benefits, so I find it difficult to argue against the subsidization of provision of mail service to isolated communities. But I think one has to draw that line rather carefully ... I don't think that society owes every community in the country air service."