The pattern is
- Government policy and poor regulation cause (or invents) a crisis.
- The government publicly and violently searches for culprits, aided by the MSM, and names the wrong parties--usually in the private sector.
- The government then rolls out a massive new law and its regulatory children to "fix" the problem as they defined it.
- The new law doesn't solve the real problem, costs a lot, and has massive unintended (but fully predicted) consequences, including setting the stage for the next crisis, which will be bigger and more damaging.
- Memory of the past crisis fades and everybody reluctantly adjusts to the massive new regulatory overhead.
- A new crisis occurs. The government publicly and violently searches for the culprits, aided by the MSM--looking exclusively in the business community...
1 comment:
I think this book explores the concept pretty well, including the "ratchet" effect of government that never downsizes after the crises:
http://www.amazon.com/Crisis-Leviathan-Critical-Government-Institute/dp/019505900X
( Also available from Cato :) )
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