Congress Should NOT Act
8 March 2007
Editor, USA Today
To the Editor:
You argue that documented abuses by credit-card issuers show that Congress must regulate the consumer-credit industry more heavily ("When interest rates hit 32%, there ought to be a law," March 9).
I disagree. The case for keeping politicians from meddling in markets does not rest on the claim that businesses never misbehave. Instead, it rests on the understanding that politicians attempting to correct that misbehavior will likely make matters worse.
Consider that it would be easy to fill time at a Congressional hearing with documented errors and abuses committed by America's free press. One that comes to mind is the 12-year run of false and plagiarized reports in your own pages by reporter Jack Kelley. Should Congress conclude from this abuse of the public trust that the First Amendment has failed? Should we Americans repeal that Amendment so that Congress can "set some markers" designed to keep you and other news media from misleading us in the future?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, USA Today
To the Editor:
You argue that documented abuses by credit-card issuers show that Congress must regulate the consumer-credit industry more heavily ("When interest rates hit 32%, there ought to be a law," March 9).
I disagree. The case for keeping politicians from meddling in markets does not rest on the claim that businesses never misbehave. Instead, it rests on the understanding that politicians attempting to correct that misbehavior will likely make matters worse.
Consider that it would be easy to fill time at a Congressional hearing with documented errors and abuses committed by America's free press. One that comes to mind is the 12-year run of false and plagiarized reports in your own pages by reporter Jack Kelley. Should Congress conclude from this abuse of the public trust that the First Amendment has failed? Should we Americans repeal that Amendment so that Congress can "set some markers" designed to keep you and other news media from misleading us in the future?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Sunday November 4, 2007 at 1:01pm