Market Correction

1 May 2006

Editor, The Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071

Dear Editor:

You're correct that the late John Kenneth Galbraith "was generally considered to have been an apostle of the theories advanced by British economist John Maynard Keynes" ("John Kenneth Galbraith; Popularized Modern Economics," May 1). But a fundamental difference separated these two men from each other. Unlike Galbraith, who long advocated wage and price controls, Keynes always understood such regulations to be both economically asinine and a symptom of tyranny.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University

1 May 2006

Editor, The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281

Dear Editor:

Rob Portman and Susan Schwab assert that "the U.S. cannot keep its current offer [to dramatically reduce our agricultural subsidies and tariffs] on the table - let alone unilaterally agree to make deeper cuts to our domestic support programs - without additional and substantial steps by the European Union and other major partners, including those in the developing world, to open their markets" ("Free Trade Vision," May 1).

Why not? Why must we Americans wait for other governments to stop abusing their citizens with wasteful handouts to special-interest groups before our government stops abusing us with wasteful handouts to special-interest groups?

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University

30 April 2006

Editor, The Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071

Dear Editor:

With my Virginia vanity car-tag reading FRE TRDE, I am second-to-none in applauding your call for western governments to stop protecting and subsidizing farmers ("Rescuing Trade," April 30).

We mustn't, however, overlook the chief cause of poverty for people in the third-world - namely, their own governments' predatory policies. Chief among these are some of the world's most draconian restrictions on international trade. Until the likes of Cameroon, Paraguay, and Niger tear down their own high barriers to trade, their people's ability to benefit from exchange with the rest of the world will be minimal, regardless of what we do in the west.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University

29 April 2006

The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036

To the Editor:

Charles Michener thinks that America needs government again to pursue "an elaborate program for ... national renewal" (Letters, April 29).

Rousing words. But Walter Lippmann, who closely observed the very elaborate New Deal, issued this warning in 1937 about expansive government: "it is evident that the more varied and comprehensive the regulation becomes, the more the state becomes a despotic power as against the individual. For the fragment of control over the government which he exercises through his vote is in no effective sense proportionate to the authority exercised over him by the government."*

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University

* Walter Lippmann, The Good Society (Boston: Little, Brown Co., 1937), p. 106.

28 April 2006

Editor, Cybercast News Service

Dear Editor:

Reviewing Rod Dreher's book Crunchy Cons (April 25), Paul Weyrich applauds Dreher's assertion that "big business deserves as much skepticism as big government."

Really? Businesses (without government assistance) only offer to trade with me voluntarily; they otherwise leave me alone. In contrast, government confiscates large chunks of my wealth and disrupts my life with arrogant commands and prohibitions. Businesses prosper in peace; governments habitually make war. The former are producers; the latter - despite its telegenic pose to the contrary - is a predator.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University