Monday, April 27, 2009

Who Regulates the Regulators?   [Mark Steyn]

After my post on Andrew Lloyd Webber and the United Kingdom's new 50 percent tax rates, several readers sent me items on other showbiz types' views of the Treasury. Among them was this George Harrison interview from 1969. In the course of a wide-ranging ramble, George detours into some observations about the Monopolies Commission (the equivalent — roughly — of the U.S. antitrust regime):

You know, this is the thing I don't like. It's the Monopolies Commission. Now if anybody, you know, Kodak, or somebody is cleaning up the market with film, the Monopolies Commission, the Government send them in there, and say you know, you're not allowed to monopolize. Yet, when the Government's monopolizing, who's gonna send in, you know, this Commission to sort that one out.

There was an old joke in Britain: "Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?" In fact, it's a profound observation about the nature of government. We wouldn't like it if there were only one automobile company or only one breakfast cereal, but by definition there can only be one federal government — which is why, "when the Government's monopolizing", it should do so only in very limited areas.

This isn't an abstract philosophical point, but a very practical one. Fans of big government take it for granted that Barack Obama, Timothy Geithner, Barney Frank, and a couple of other guys can "run" the financial sector better than 8,000 U.S. banks all jostling for elbow room like bacteria in a petri dish. Same with the auto industry, and the insurance industry, and the property market, and health care, and "the global environment." The skill-set required to run a billion-dollar company is the province of very few individuals. The skill-set required to run a multi-trillion-dollar government is unknown to human history.

04/27 09:52 AMShare