The ITA’s antidumping duty on pressure-sensitive plastic tape from Italy was set to expire soon. Unfortunately, ending the levy would “likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping,” so it’s here to stay.
Domestic tape producers must be pleased. Consumers, not so much.
Comments Off on Regulation of the Day 33: Pressure-Sensitive Plastic Tape
Posted in Economics, International, Regulation of the Day, Trade
Federal spending is going up. Tax receipts are going down. 2009’s federal budget deficit is now up to $1.27 trillion as a result. That’s about triple what even big-spending George W. Bush could manage. Total federal debt now stands at over $11.66 trillion.
Many other developed countries have built debt loads twice ours and more, and without apocalyptic consequences. So it appears such enormous shortfalls do not pose an existential threat to the economy. At least, not yet. But high long-run deficits do slow growth. To help end the recession, government should reduce the deficit by spending less. Three reasons why:
–Today’s deficit is tomorrow’s tax increase. Deficits are paid for by borrowing. What the government borrows, it has to pay back. Sometimes it puts off that taxation by borrowing money to pay back previously borrowed money. But some day, borrowed money ultimately has to paid back by taxpayers. Increasing deficits necessarily means increasing future taxes.
–Government borrowing crowds out private borrowing. The higher the deficit, the more crowding out. This point is underappreciated. There are only so many investor dollars to go around. The $1.27 trillion the government is borrowing to pay for this year’s spending is $1.27 trillion that now cannot go towards job-creating corporate bond issues or stock IPOs. Imagine the opportunity costs.
–More spending begets more regulation. Government money comes with strings attached, as GM now knows. And once a rule is in the books, it’s in there for good, usually. When government spends so fast that it has to borrow, the process accelerates.
The budget deficit is expected to rise even higher as 2009 runs its course. There are already 1,270,000,000,000 trillion reasons for government to cut spending to levels it can afford. How many more do Congress and the president need?
If you’re planning on hunting migratory birds this year, be sure to read all 14 subparts and 61 sections in Title 50 of the Code of Federal Regulations pertaining to migratory bird hunting. Lots of rules to follow.
You should also read pages 41,008-41,031 of the 2009 Federal Register for the latest changes.
Comments Off on Regulation of the Day 32: Migratory Birds
Posted in Regulation of the Day, Uncategorized
The new issue of the CEI Planet has an article of mine about proposed legislation to make the TARP bank bailout program more transparent.
Main point: more transparency would alleviate some of TARP’s symptoms. But TARP itself is a disease. The sooner Congress gains the political will to recover from its bailout fever, the better.
You can read the rest of the Planet here.
Comments Off on TARP Transparency: A Good Start, but Not Enough
Posted in Bailouts, Economics, Publications
Here’s a letter I sent recently to The New York Times:
Editor, The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018
To the Editor:
Eric Zencey’s article “G.D.P. R.I.P” (August 10) correctly points out that GDP has limited usefulness in measuring well-being. But his case is muddled by confusing money with wealth. Money is a unit of measure, like a mile or a ton. But it is not itself wealth.
He writes, “If you get into a fender-bender and have your car fixed, G.D.P. goes up.” It actually stays the same. If I don’t get into the accident, I’ll just spend the repair money on something else. While the accident may have no effect on GDP, it does have an effect on wealth; I am inarguably poorer. Instead of a working car plus a new tv, I can enjoy only the car.
Zencey’s confusion is itself an example of why GDP does a poor job of measuring well-being.
RYAN YOUNG
Fellow in Regulatory Studies
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Washington, Aug. 10, 2009
Comments Off on Money Is Not Wealth
Posted in Correspondence, Economics, Monetary Theory
If you’re a wholesaler of crude oil or gasoline, a new FTC rule makes it illegal to engage in any business practice that “operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon any person”.
Not sure why that requires a brand new FTC rule. Fraud is already against the law.
Comments Off on Regulation of the Day 31: Fraud in Wholesale Oil Markets
Posted in Regulation of the Day
David Boaz makes an excellent point about media coverage of President Obama’s health care proposal:
The media tendency to refer to the defeat of a big-government scheme as “failure” reflects a possibly unconscious bias toward government action.
Well put. Why not make it conscious, then? Call it truth in advertising.
An objective media would be nice. But we are unlikely to ever see such a thing. Even the very best reporters are human. And humans are biased. Different people are biased in different ways, of course. But objectivity is still a fiction. Being open about this ugly truth could do much to reduce public confusion.
If readers have a clearer idea of what exactly they’re reading, they can run the articles through their liberal and conservative B.S. filters as needed, and more easily get to the heart of the matter.
Few readers seem to bother so long as the liberal Washington Post and conservative Washington Times continue with their objectivity charades. Bias can be harmful and misleading, true. But denying it only avoids the problem. Let’s tackle it instead.
Comments Off on Media Bias: The More, the Better
Posted in Media
If your company makes mustard bottles that are reusable as beer mugs, you are specifically required to put a country-of-origin label on your product.
Strangely specific, that one.
Comments Off on Regulation of the Day 30: Labeling Mustard
Posted in Regulation of the Day
Tagged mustard
The New York Times notes that Mexico’s jails are a “places where drug traffickers find a new base of operations for their criminal empires, recruit underlings, and bribe their way out for the right price.”
Amazing. Armed guards. All the bad guys behind bars. Under constant supervision. And Mexico still can’t keep drugs and drug dealing out of its prisons. The U.S. suffers from the same problem, by the way.
If authorities can’t keep drugs out of prisons, how can they expect to keep them out the hands of the general population? Maybe, just possibly, prohibition is not an effective way of stopping drug abuse.
Comments Off on They Can’t Even Keep Drugs Out of Prison?
Posted in prohibition
Inertia Wins! 