There is a good piece at WSJ Online titled, “Get Ready For A Lost Decade-Bad Times Don’t Produce Good Policy” by Holman W. Jenkins Jr.
He reaffirms my beliefs that during times of little prosperity, those seeking more regulation, higher taxes, and protectionism usually get their way.
But once prosperity blows up, the quasi-virtuous policy circle becomes an unvirtuous one as new interest groups come to the fore to exploit an appetite, previously weak, to impose their costly or vindictive wish lists. And even well-meaning policy gets twisted and rendered incoherent.
His thoughts generally state that government cannot act as efficiently as private enterprise and can cause far more harm than good.
Or take the gathering auto bailout: Taxpayer dollars are being thrown at Detroit auto makers to make them “viable,” even as Congress imposes new fuel-mileage mandates requiring them to incur tens of billions in costs unlikely to be recouped from their customers — the definition of “nonviable.”
He then takes Obama’s planned “stimulus” package to task:
Mr. Obama’s troops palpitate with excitement at the prospect of $1 trillion in “stimulus,” though any net benefit to the economy likely will be incidental. Al Gore has thrown out the window any unpopular carbon taxes in favor of direct subsidies to his green energy investments. He sees the moment for what it is — alarm about global warming has degenerated into a pretext. Billions will be diverted from useful purposes to create “green jobs” that deliver no meaningful impact on climate or the accumulation of atmospheric carbon.
Frankly, the government needs to let entrepreneurs takeover. The attempts to create new markets with green regulations will backfire, as they already have with autos and oil prices. Manipulating the free market is like swimming against the Niagra River.
