Monthly Archives: August 2009

Hoover and the Great Depression

Posted on August 31, 2009 | Comments Off on Hoover and the Great Depression

One of the oddities of U.S. history is that Herbert Hoover is regarded as a free-market president. He grew federal spending by 52% in just four years. Engaged in massive deficit spending. Created the Federal Home Loan Bank. And the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Signed the Smoot-Hawley tariffs into law. And the Agricultural Marketing Act. And so on. Free-market, he was not.

The Hoover myth is showing some cracks, fortunately. Where most civics textbooks would blame Hoover’s laissez-faire policies for the Great Depression, a new paper by UCLA’s Lee Ohanian fingers Hoover’s labor market interventions.

I’m personally convinced the Depression was more of a monetary phenomenon than a fiscal one. But Ohanian is surely right that Hoover’s dictating to companies what wages shall pay their workers was a net negative for the economy.

It’s certainly possible to blame Hoover’s policies for the Great Depression. Just not on the grounds that those policies were free-market. People shouldn’t have to read obscure academic journals to find that out.

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Posted in Business Cycles, Economics, Monetary Theory

Regulation of the Day 42: Hearing Aid Calibration

Posted on August 31, 2009 | Comments Off on Regulation of the Day 42: Hearing Aid Calibration

In Virginia, state law requires audiometers used for prescribing hearing aids to be calibrated at least annually. Records must be kept for three years.

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Posted in Regulation of the Day

Regulation of the Day 41: The Color of Beer Cans

Posted on August 27, 2009 | Comments Off on Regulation of the Day 41: The Color of Beer Cans

Having already solved all of the country’s economic problems, the FTC now has time to threaten to step in and stop Budweiser from selling cans of Bud Light with college sports team colors on the labels.

Hat tip to Mark Calabria.

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Posted in Nanny State, Regulation of the Day

Nanotech: Innovation or Stagnation?

Posted on August 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Nanotech: Innovation or Stagnation?

Over at the Washington Examiner‘s Opinion Zone, I give nanotechnology a Schumpeterian treatment. In the long run, a competitive, cut-throat market process driven by innovation is better for consumers than if government were to fund and direct research:

A nanotech firm that lives mostly off of government grants lives a sheltered, more docile existence. It doesn’t need to come up with new products that save peoples’ lives, or make them better. They just have to be good at getting grants.

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Posted in Economics, Technology, The Market Process

Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009

Posted on August 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009

Sen. Ted Kennedy has died. As the Kennedy family deals with the loss of its patriarch, it is worth taking a look at how he is being remembered. Conservatives tend to see only his personal flaws, and his unrepentant big-government liberalism. And these are not to be ignored. They are part of who he was, after all.

But all that many left-liberals see is a hero. His imperfections, merely evidence that this god-like figure was human. Kennedy was not so simple.

From a classical liberal perspective, Sen. Kennedy’s government-first philosophy was deeply troubling. But he also made positive contributions in opening up America’s restrictive immigration system. From the 1920s until 1965, our immigration system actually had race-based quotas. Not only did Sen. Kennedy end the quotas, he changed his party’s thinking on the issue.

Back then, the Democratic party was the one that tended to be more opposed to immigration. Sen. Kennedy’s influence is one reason why today’s partisan Democrats typically have more in common with libertarians on immigration than partisan Republicans.

Classical liberals also had a friend in Sen. Kennedy on issues such as gay rights, free speech (but not campaign finance reform), and in opposing the Iraq war.

This is not to minimize the shallow partisanship and reflexive big-government beliefs that guided his professional life, or his often less-than-admirable personal life. He was not the anointed saint that this morning’s New York Times hagiography paints him to be. Nor the demonic hell-spawn that many conservative outlets are painting him as.

As with any human being, his portrait is more complicated than that. He should be remembered as such. Condolences to Sen. Kennedy’s family and friends in their time of loss.

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Posted in Political Animals

Regulation of the Day 40: Flying a Plane

Posted on August 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Regulation of the Day 40: Flying a Plane

Want to fly a plane? The FAA just published 72 pages worth of changes to its already extensive certification rules. 173 changes in all.

Don’t forget to list your current residential address when applying for a knowledge test.

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Posted in Regulation of the Day

Regulation of the Day 39: Postmodern Microwave Ovens

Posted on August 25, 2009 | 1 comment

While cleaning my microwave oven at home the other day, I noticed a little metal badge on the inside with the model number, serial number, and some other information. At the bottom, it declared in capital letters:

“THIS PRODUCT COMPLIES WITH DHHS RULES 21 CFR SUBCHAPTER J.”

So I looked it up. The rule says, among other things, that appliances have to have little badges on them that say they comply with rule requiring the little badges. Perhaps this comes from the Department of Redundancy Department?

1 Comment

Posted in Regulation of the Day

Regulation of the Day 38: Carrying Letters

Posted on August 24, 2009 | Comments Off on Regulation of the Day 38: Carrying Letters

Antitrust laws are intended to prevent anti-competitive practices. And if anything qualifies as an anti-competitive practice, fining and jailing people for competing with you certainly would. Which brings us to this little tidbit from the Code of Federal Regulations:

It is generally unlawful under the Private Express Statutes for any person other than the Postal Service in any manner to send or carry a letter on a post route or in any manner to cause or assist such activity. Violation may result in injunction, fine or imprisonment or both and payment of postage lost as a result of the illegal activity.

I expect the Department of Justice to launch an investigation post-haste.

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Posted in Antitrust, Regulation of the Day

DOJ to Investigate Microsoft-Yahoo Search Partnership

Posted on August 24, 2009 | Comments Off on DOJ to Investigate Microsoft-Yahoo Search Partnership

As expected, The Department of Justice is launching an antitrust investigation into the Microsoft-Yahoo search engine partnership.

As I’ve said before, this is not an antitrust issue.

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Posted in Antitrust, Economics, Technology

Why I Want a Public Option in the Health Care Bill

Posted on August 21, 2009 | Comments Off on Why I Want a Public Option in the Health Care Bill

Rep. Steny Hoyer is now backing away from the public option, according to Politico. While surprising at first glance, this is a very shrewd political move.

A bill with a public option will probably not pass. Too much opposition. But one without it probably will. Conceding on the public option allows people who support more government involvement in health care to still get much of what they want.

They can always try for a public option later. People will always be dissatisfied with their health care. There will always be calls for reform. Politicians can always win votes by being seen doing something about it.

The main reason the public option has become such a lightning rod probably isn’t ideological. It’s just too big of a change for people to be comfortable with it. Institutions are sticky. Dislodging them with sudden, major changes always creates backlash. Inertia always wins.

But slow, persistent nudges can get the job done without backlash. That’s why even people who want nationalized health care are not calling for it in 2009. They thought the public option would be a small enough step in that direction for the change to stick.

They guessed wrong. That’s why smart tacticians like Rep. Hoyer are backing off. But they’re still going to offer a bill to increase the public sector’s health care presence, if by not as much as originally hoped. Baby steps. Give the electorate a little time to digest the change. Then take the next step.

That’s why I would like Rep. Hoyer and the rest of the leadership team to keep the public option. It very likely dooms their bill to failure. Government is far too involved in health care as it is.

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Posted in Economics, Health Care, Political Animals