Could somebody explain to me why recovery.gov displays 3D pie charts, even though by now everyone really ought to know that 3D pie charts (and arguably pie charts of all kinds) are horrible at conveying information and should not be used? I think this is what Mises and Hayek were getting at with their knowledge argument: a central planner cannot possibly do the job of coordinating all the disparate bits of local knowledge that must be taken into account for optimal price determination, because even if they could collate and tabulate all the information, in the end they won't be able to resist the totalitarian temptation to sum everything up in a 3D pie chart and nobody will be able to visually judge the areas properly.
