Market Correction

28 November 2006

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

Dear Editor:

Your report on the rank protectionism of U.S. textile firms and their representatives on Capitol Hill ("Haiti's Trade Push Hits New Political Head Wind," Nov. 27) is subtitled "Lawmakers Look Askance At Effort to Ease Tariff Rule Amid Globalization Concern."

A more accurate subtitle would be "Officeholders Look Askance At Effort to Strip An Influential Special-Interest Group of Monopoly Protection Amid Concerns that Failure to Do So Will Jeopardize Their Political Careers."

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

27 November 2006

The Editor, Marketplace
American Public Media

To the Editor:

Employment agencies in Berlin charge 15 percent of the earnings of each shopping-mall Santa whom they place in gainful holiday employment. Your host Kai Ryssdal reacts to this contractually agreed upon fee by crying “Bah humbug” (Nov. 27).

Would that government take from people's earnings a mere 15 percent. Would that government supply, in exchange for the fees it charges, services of genuine value to those who pay the fees. And would that we all, like shopping-mall Santas who don't wish to do business with any employment agency, enjoy the right to keep all of our earnings in exchange for the state keeping its obnoxious self out of our lives.

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