[marketcorrection] Don Boudreaux: Congress Should NOT Act

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Posted by Don Boudreaux:
Congress Should NOT Act
http://marketcorrection.powerblogs.com/posts/1194199314.shtml


   8 March 2007
   Editor, USA Today
   To the Editor:
   You argue that documented abuses by credit-card issuers show that
   Congress must regulate the consumer-credit industry more heavily
   ("When interest rates hit 32%, there ought to be a law," March 9).
   I disagree. The case for keeping politicians from meddling in markets
   does not rest on the claim that businesses never misbehave. Instead,
   it rests on the understanding that politicians attempting to correct
   that misbehavior will likely make matters worse.
   Consider that it would be easy to fill time at a Congressional hearing
   with documented errors and abuses committed by America's free press.
   One that comes to mind is the 12-year run of false and plagiarized
   reports in your own pages by reporter Jack Kelley. Should Congress
   conclude from this abuse of the public trust that the First Amendment
   has failed? Should we Americans repeal that Amendment so that Congress
   can "set some markers" designed to keep you and other news media from
   misleading us in the future?
   Sincerely,
   Donald J. Boudreaux
   Chairman, Department of Economics
   George Mason University