A Political Economy

Tyler Cowen (economics professor, food critic, and blogger extraordinaire) just wrote the most important op-ed you’ll read all year in the New York Times.  He could have easily summarized his point by simply saying that the returns to lobbying are much greater than returns to normal investment and production, especially in the financial and health sectors, but his way was good too.

But we are now injecting politics ever more deeply into the American economy, whether it be in finance or in sectors like health care. Not only have we failed to learn from our mistakes, but also we’re repeating them on an ever-larger scale.

Lately the surviving major banks have reported brisk profits, yet in large part this reflects astute politicking and lobbying rather than commercial skill.

Also, worth noting was his allusion to Ayn Rand without overtly citing it as authoritative–or correct–thereby submitting himself to public castigation.