Russell Roberts's Blog, page 1556

Some Links

My fellow cajun and GMU colleague – over in the law school – J.W. Verret was interviewed earlier this week by the Wall Street Journal on legislation that would impose fiduciary duties on broker-dealers toward their clients.  Here's an excerpt:

DJ [Deal Journal:]: How would this proposal change Wall Street?

Verret: It's a ground-breaking already to require broker dealers to uphold a fiduciary duty. It's doubly ground-breaking to criminalize the violation of those duties. Brokers have an...

Frau Merkel, Tear Down This Wall!

Here's a letter to the Washington Post:

Blaming "speculators" and "investors' greed" for the euro's decline, the German government has imposed new taxes and regulations to severely restrict speculation ("German lawmakers approve euro rescue package," May 21).

Each such restriction is to capital what the Berlin Wall was to people: an obstacle meant only to protect irresponsible and oppressive governments from the consequences of their irresponsibility and oppression.

By forcibly obstructing...

More Evidence on Laissez-Fairism

George Washington University's Susan Dudley, and the Weidenbaum Center's Melinda Warren, just released this important study: A Decade of Growth in the Regulators' Budget: An Analysis of the U.S. Budget for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011.

I highlight one fact here – a fact that is at odds with those persons who allege that the period roughly from 1980 to 2009 was one of laissez-fairism in America: the total amount of real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) dollars spent by Uncle Sam's administrative...

Planning! THAT'S the Key to Economic Success!

Here's a letter sent today to the Washington Post:

Fearful of the alleged threat that China's growing economy poses to America, James McGregor asks "How do we overcome the fundamental disconnect between our system of scattered bureaucratic responsibilities and almost no national economic planning vs. China's top-down, disciplined and aggressive national economic development planning machine?" ("Time to rethink U.S.-China trade relations," May 19).

This question is a profusion of confusion. ...

I Wonder If Prof. Sunstein Routinely Co-Teaches with Richard Epstein

Here's yet more evidence of the fetish for force that possesses non-classical-liberals and non-libertarians.  In this radio interview, Cass Sunstein – now head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs – reveals his utter lack of interest in upholding the letter and the spirit of First-amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

(HT GMU student Adam Bitely)

If Sunstein had his way, refusals by websites that contain political commentary to 'voluntarily' ...

Keep All Hombres Neutered

Woody Allen thinks that "It would be good … if he [Barack Obama:] could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly."

Contrast Mr. Allen's fetish for political strongmen with Milton Friedman's attitude.  When asked by an interviewer what he (Friedman) would do if he (Friedman) were dictator for a day, this great and good man answered "I don't like dictators….  If we can't persuade the public that it's desirable to do these things, we have no right to impose...

Economists Without Borders

Here's a letter sent yesterday to the producers of the radio program "Marketplace":

You report that the Union of Concerned Scientists worries about the fact that "11 states each spend more than a billion dollars a year importing coal from other states" ("States spend big on importing coal," May 18).  These scientists conclude that states whose residents import a good deal of energy from outside of their respective states are not getting energy efficiently – that these energy imports are...

No Longer Haunted by This Specter

In light of yesterday's election results, my friend Mike LaFaive sends me this wonderful quotation from George Mason:

Nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of his constituents, as the certainty of returning to the general mass of the people, from whence he was taken, where he must participate in their burdens.

Of course, even an out-of-work Arlen Specter (R D-PA) isn't likely to "participate" in any proportional way in the burdens that his 30-year career in the U.S. Senate...

A Note on Collective Decision-Making

This morning, part of a radio news program here in Washington featured a discussion of general elections and runoff elections.  The specific context was Democrat Blanche Lincoln's prospects for re-nomination by her party to stand as the Democrats' candidate for reelection to the U.S. Senate from Arkansas.  If Ms. Lincoln doesn't get a majority of votes in today's three-person race for the nomination – and prospects are poor that she'll clear the 50-percent-vote hurdle – there will be a...

Open Letter to Paul Krugman

Dear Prof. Krugman:

In your May 14 blog-post "Why Libertarianism Doesn't Work, Part N" you attempt to tar libertarianism as being an ideology that "requires incorruptible politicians."

You're deeply confused.  One foundation of libertarianism is the observation that no profession is as infested with corruption as is politics.

The political ideology dependent upon politicians being wise and saintly isn't libertarianism but, rather, your own – namely, "Progressivism."  You and your ilk...