Just as Bush’s open-ended war on terror provides ample illustrations of a politician paying off electoral debts, his administration’s aggressive trade policies smack of blatant favoritism. Indeed, steel, lumber, textile, and agricultural lobbies all rejoice at Mr. Bush’s penchant for protectionism and subsidies as much as the military-industrial complex savors America’s assertive, post 9-11, forays abroad.
The Gold Rush May Continue (NYT): “An analyst at a big hedge fund, who insisted that he not be named, put the argument bluntly: ‘I don’t think supply and demand matter,’ he said. ‘What matters is the esteem people have for paper money and what we are seeing here is a flight to hard assets — gold.’”
Writes Regina Herzlinger in today’s Wall Street Journal ($): “With the effective passage of the Medicare drug bill, we have just vastly enlarged the health-care sector.
Writing in Forbes, Steven Hanke applies the economics of war to the war on terrorism:
“Not surprisingly, the war on terrorism has not caught Washington’s rent-seekers flat-footed. The latest call to arms has given cover to a multitude of parochial opportunists. Their proposals range from bailing out airlines to nationalizing vaccine production. The war has also given a major shot in the arm to what has rapidly become a ubiquitous security industry.
Why do governments get into bad situations so often? The real problem is not usually out and out corruption, writes Tibor Machan. The problem is systemic. Essentially, governments lack the needed basis for assessing the relationship between their resources and their expenses. They are unavoidably ill informed because the means by which that relationship is best understood is plainly unavailable for governments.
On April 22, 2003, President Bush declared in response to a reporter’s question, “I think Alan Greenspan should get another term.” Bush’s expression of support for Greenspan’s reappointment to another four-year term as Fed Chairman came more than a year in advance of the expiration of the Chairman’s current term in June 2004.
Nothing sharpens the sight like envy. Many legislators who are enjoying six-figure remunerations and seven-figure benefits are dismayed about corporate compensation. They resent the fact that many chief executive officers (CEOs) are raking in multimillion-dollar pay packages while lawmakers subsist on such meager fare. Many CEOs, in their judgment, are greedy executives who thrive undeservedly on corporate profits and stockholder equity. Read more...
“Rebar is just a lowly scrap metal, but it’s starting to look like gold on some construction sites.
