

The Open-Door Bailout - tokenadult
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/opinion/11friedman.html

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Eliezer
"All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and
Koreans," said Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper. "We will
buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We
will immediately improve your savings rate..."

Every now and then, you run into something that is such a brilliant and
absolutely good idea, which has such an infinitesimal chance of being
implemented, that it makes you feel like crying.

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jacoblyles
Power and responsibility are divorced in our political system. The quality "is
supported by concentrated and active interest groups" is far more important to
a bill's success than "benefits society as a whole".

This is an old problem. Democracy has always been non-rational.

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palish
_Power and responsibility are divorced in our political system._

This was not the case before the checks and balances were thrown out. The
system used to work well, or at least better than previous systems.

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jacoblyles
Checks and balances help, but I don't think they are a cure-all. Mancur
Olson's observations about democracy's bias in favor of laws that serve a
concentrated interest but have diffuse costs is valid even with more robust
checks.

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geebee
I rarely drive from San Francisco to San Jose, or along the coast from Los
Angeles to San Diego, and think: what this place _really_ needs is another two
million people and higher housing prices.

Would it be _such_ a bad thing for housing prices to take a dip? Even after
this bust, the last thing San Francisco is experiencing is a shortage of well
heeled people trying to buy houses.

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fizx
Six months ago, I completely agreed with you. Now, I want housing to stay
relatively constant, while my own earning power increases. This is the win-win
situation that could/should be the outcome of a well-executed economic plan.

