ong after the end of the Second World War, Britain was still having to cope with shortages, thanks largely to government-imposed rationing. The UK’s post-war balance of payments position was decidedly weak, one reason why consumers weren’t allowed to buy what they wanted. Sheer bad luck also played its part. A very wet summer in 1946 followed soon after by a horrible winter frost destroyed much of Britain’s wheat and potato supplies.

Behind all the messy maneuvering in Congress right now is a hidden story: To an underappreciated degree, Democrats just launched a broadside against the edifice of minority rule that Republicans are busy constructing, in every way they possibly can, as a bulwark against our democratic future.

In life, description should precede prescription. You observe reality (description) and then decide what to do (prescription). Too often, though, people work backward. They start with a judgment and then assemble a version of reality that supports it. To wit, face masks are bad, therefore face masks don’t protect against the coronavirus.

Adam Posen thinks some of his fellow economists who share his belief that interest rates should remain low may be guilty of this mental error. Influenced by their own views on monetary policy, he says, they are unrealistically optimistic that today’s high inflation will go away quickly. “Wanting to be right in one’s policy proclivities and pronouncements seems to be driving most forecasters’ views,” Posen, who is president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote me in an email this week.

Members of the Federal Open Market Committee, which steers interest rates, have been more or less unanimous that today’s high...