Tag Archives: political economy

A Strong Economy

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Stipulate, arguendo, that we actually have one of those going on. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell wants to cool it down hard.

The latest economic data have come in stronger than expected, which suggests that the ultimate level of interest rates is likely to be higher than previously anticipated. If the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we would be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes.

That is the Fed’s standard answer for dealing with inflation, manipulating interest rates are its primary tool, and it’s not an entirely wrong answer. Burgeoning economic activity that has demand for goods and services overwhelming the ability of producers to deliver the goods and services is a major driver of inflation, and that inflation hammers us average Americans by badly devaluing our incomes. Dampening demand is a way to deal with inflation.

However.

Consumer demand isn’t the only component of overall economic demand: Federal spending is another major player, and the Federal government creates completely artificial demand with its spending.

Repeat my opening stipulation. If our economy is strong, we don’t need nearly so much Federal spending. The Biden administration—and any following series of administrations—need to cut out the stimulus spending, cut back on “baseline” spending, and get out of the way of the private economy. Absent Federal…interference…in our economy, spending and supply will align quickly as us Americans decide for ourselves what we will buy, what we will produce, and the price levels at which we will carry out the relevant exchanges.

Take note, also: that puts a premium on the Republican House and Senate caucuses standing firm on requiring spending cuts beginning next fiscal year and continuing into the out years as a quid pro quo for raising the debt ceiling this year.

Needs

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In an editorial centered on the travails of a small pharmaceutical company, Novavax Inc, in developing medicines—here, particularly, Novavax’ Wuhan Virus vaccine in alternative to Pfizer’s and Moderna’s—there were these claims by then-NAIAD head Anthony Fauci in explaining the apparently deliberate regulatory delay in getting FDA approval:

We don’t need another vaccine.

And

It just seems rather unusual that people are waiting for something else when you have vaccines that have been given to now nine billion people[.]

This is another instance of Government presuming to dictate to us average Americans what our needs are instead of accepting that we know our needs and how to satisfy them much better than any Government bureaucrat.

Novavax’ alternative vaccine was 90.4% effective against symptomatic infection and offered 100% protection against moderate and severe illness, and now the company is on the verge of bankruptcy due to this governmental arrogance.

So much for medicine innovation.

Negative Inference

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Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg likes to jet around the country and to overseas locations. He claims to do this while flying coach on commercial airlines, but he’s also taken 23 jet rides at taxpayer expense on private Government-owned jets. Now he’s refusing to supply relevant oversight data for these rides.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has turned down repeated requests for information related to the taxpayer costs of 23 flights Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his advisers took on government private jets since taking office.
The DOT and the agency’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) office both declined to detail how much each flight cost taxpayers over the course of multiple months and in recent weeks.

It’s illegal for Government agencies to refuse to respond substantively to FOIA requests (clearly saying “No” with a clear explanation of the legality for that “No” would constitute such a substantive response).

It’s a common practice in cases before a court for a judge to advise a jury that when a prosecutor’s witness obfuscates during his testimony, or refuses to answer clearly or at all, the jury is free to attach the most negative interpretation to those witness failures during the jury’s subsequent deliberations.

So it is with the man who sits in the Transportation Secretary’s chair. Pete Buttigieg cannot be taken as anything other than both in over his head and dishonest. His words are useless, and the only conclusion possible concerning those flights is that they were done illegally, and that illegality—repeated 23 times—should be a fireable offense.

Perhaps it’s time for Government officials who stonewall to lose access to their office facilities through those facilities’ loss of funding. And this step, also, although it won’t have immediate effect, even were it to get through the Progressive-Democratic Party-dominated Senate and White House:

House Republicans plan to vote to defund non-complying witnesses in the government when the new fiscal budget takes effect on October 1.

In the present case, that would mean Buttigieg and the head of his FOIA Office would lose their salaries.

Streamlining

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Recall the People’s Republic of China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law that requires all PRC-domiciled businesses, and by extension, the companies which those businesses control that are domiciled in non-PRC nations, to provide, even to actively seek out, any and all information that the PRC’s intelligence community wants those businesses to produce.

Now the PRC is moving to streamline that process.

China is set to create a new government agency to centralize the management of the country’s vast stores of data, as Beijing seeks to address data-security practices by businesses and streamline its regulatory structure.
The new national data bureau is set to become the top Chinese regulator on various data-related issues, people familiar with the matter said, in a shift from the current structure in which multiple ministries share oversight.

And this:

If established, the agency…[would] set and enforce data-collection and sharing rules for businesses, or vet the data that domestic companies plan to share with foreign business partners to check for potential national-security breaches….

Carefully omitted is that tie-back to the intelligence collection law. In addition to streamlining control of domestic data collection and dissemination, this centralized agency would streamline the intelligence community’s use of PRC businesses for espionage.

Rules for Investing in the People’s Republic of China

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The Biden administration is starting to pay lip service to setting rules for American businesses’ investing in the People’s Republic of China. It’s

preparing a new program that could prohibit US investment in certain sectors in China, a new step to guard US technology advantages during a growing competition between the world’s two largest economies.

And, of course, the effort will need new taxpayer money.

Treasury and Commerce departments said they expected to finalize their policy on the issue in the near future. Both agencies said they expected to seek additional resources for the investment program in the White House budget, which will be released next week.

Naturally, the administration isn’t prepared to specify which sectors would be included, or how these departments propose to enforce their rules. Just give them money.

Since the Federal government is in the business of regulating American business’ investing in enemy nations, I have my own proposal for a rule for investing in the PRC: No. No investments in the PRC, and those businesses with investments there have two years in which to wind down those investments and withdraw from the PRC.

That won’t cost nearly as much. Just require public companies to report their investments in their quarterly SEC filings, and private companies to report same in their Federal tax filings—which would easily fall within the requirement, with only the smallest adjustment, to report on accounts held in foreign nations. Require those particular reporting subjects to be available to the public via FOIA requests. These requirements would come close to paying for themselves in the early years by assessing fines equal to the size of the investments not reported or inaccurately reported.

I have an alternative rule proposal: for every dollar an American business wishes to invest in the PRC, it must invest three dollars in the Republic of China. If the RoC can’t absorb all of the investment, then the business cannot invest at all in the PRC. This alternative would carry the same reporting requirements and penalties as my first proposal.

A final alternative: spread those three dollars among any number, greater than one, of the nations rimming the South China Sea in addition to the RoC. Again, with the same reporting requirements and penalties.