Sowell on political meddling in the economy
Thomas Sowell provides a good critique of gov’t meddling in the economy. His critique suggests that the gov’t is largely responsible for both the subprime mortgage crisis in this country and is partially responsible for the water shortage in California (seriously, read his argument on that).
When I read Sowell’s editorials, I tend to get the feeling that he’s so fixated on economic libertarianism that he might be missing the total picture. Nonetheless, as a Milton Friedman capitalist, I like Sowell’s line of thinking and, personally speaking, I tend to sympathize w/ libertarians (for me, this translates to, “I agree w/ libertarians on economic issues but due to their often-whacky positions on other issues, they’re probably not electable on a national scale”). Gov’t meddling in the economy for political gain to ease the burden on the downtrodden tends to just make things worse (though, in non-transparent ways which don’t necessarily translate to a commensurate political backlash.
Lastly, both Dems & Repubs make liberal use of meddling techniques–from subsidies to protectionist mechanisms. This isn’t specific to a party, making it–conveniently–a “bi-partisan” problem that politicians have.