Market Process Blog

Is carrying cash on to a plane illegal? That was the question that Steve Bierfeldt asked the TSA Agent. Bierfeldt was carrying cash from a Ron Paul event and as result was seriously questioned by the TSA. The ACLU is now bringing suit against TSA for harassment. The TSA agent detained and cursed at him because Biefeldt asked whether he was required to answer their questions … read more. Has the TSA made us safer by detaining people and questioning them about carrying cash? Is the TSA constitutional? What should be done? Allow airlines to go back to screening their passengers. What will happen? TSA agents will probably go through more training at taxpayer expense.

Bailing out banks, taking over automobile companies, and now the department of justice is going after internet poker again. The Competitive Enterprise Institute has a press release out explaining how the department of justice seized “$34 million in funds rightfully owned by around 27,000 online poker players. The government is alleging that the funds are associated with illegal online gambling and money laundering.” read more …

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A few months back the Daily Show with Jon Stewart did a two part “report” on Sweden and their socialist state (see the videos above). As one would expect they put their usual tongue in cheek spin on this suggesting that the right-wing talk show hosts are over reacting about us becoming more like Sweden. The truth is that Sweden is not that bad compared to other Western European Socialist States. According to the Economic Freedom of the World Index Sweden is relatively free among Western European Countries. The index ranks each country based on five areas and then determines a summary value. The scale is from 1-10, with 10 being the most free and 1 being the least. Below are the areas and the overall value for Sweden.

AREA 1 Size of Government: Expenditures, Taxes, and Enterprises 3.73
AREA 2 Legal Structure and Security of Property Rights 8.41
AREA 3 Access to Sound Money 9.61
AREA 4 Freedom to Trade Internationally 7.72
AREA 5 Regulation of Credit, Labor, and Business 7.26
SUMMARY INDEX 7.35
Sweden ranks 33 in the world. Is this the model of economic freedom, no, but one can see that area 1, the size of government, is where they rank the worse otherwise they have a relatively high ranking. Countries like France, Italy, and Mexico are all ranked below Sweden at 45, 49, and 58, respectively. My point is that we should stop using socialist Sweden as the model of doom. The examples of France and Mexico (our southern border) may be better warnings.

Edward Glaeser has an article in today’s Boston Globe that illustrates the problems with a policy that suggests that every firm in an industry is “too big to fail”. He writes “RECESSIONS can pierce through financial fog and reveal weakness in seemingly invulnerable businesses, like Citibank and Toyota. But diagnosing the nature of corporate ill health may be difficult. Some firms suffer from a fatal disease; others have a temporary virus. Typically, professional investors must decide which troubled firms deserve a new round of financing. With the government increasingly playing angel investor to fallen firms, this task now falls to politicians and their bosses, the voters.” read more…

Is this for real? Are we really at this point? Those are the questions from one of my students who recently graduated. Yes, I am afraid it is where we are. According to Reuters Chavez joked on a live television broadcast “Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right” (read more). Is it too late is the real question. I spent the last few days at conference with other free market scholars, and the question was asked how do we create a free market again? Does the whole system have to collapse before we will realize that leaving private activities to the market process is the best approach? We hope not, and this is why economic education is so important. The fact that my former student is asking these questions and is worried I hope is a good sign.