Politics and Fedspeak

Greg Mankiw asks a very important Question: Where is the exact line to differentiate between Public and Private Information? The Bookstore, The Coop, went to the Expense and Labor Cost of finding the exact textbooks currently required by the Instructors at Harvard. Another point, though, consists of the limits of behavior that a Bookstore can demand of its Customers. The Bookstore’s contention was the individuals were not Customers, but Competition who were utilizing their facilities to advance their own business format. I would side with the Bookstore, and suggest the Website go to the Source, and ask the Harvard administration for a proper Reading list at whatever Cost the Administration places on the Information. On the other hand,
I also believe the Bookstore over-reacted to the stimulus of Competition, estimating that the total Cost to the Bookstore was slight loss of revenue; something which should just be accounted as normal Cost of doing business. The Bookstore could well attribute it to Advertising Expense, courting Good Will among the Student Body.

Caroline Baum churns out an excellent article, but one which is probably unfair to Alan Greenspan. Anyone who has spent a lengthy Period in the Public Eye cannot avoid the stigmata of personal reaction to past on-going policies. Greenspan faced almost universal pressure to advocate some degree of fiscal policy for much of his reign. The development of his skills with ‘Fedspeak’ amplify his need to limit his intrusion into areas where he felt the Fed should not go. Caroline criticizes Greenspan’s ‘Irrational Exuberance of the Market’ Speech, though as Fed Chairman he perceived definite deviant market behavior, and knew some Warning must be given. It might simply be the fact that Greenspan as Fed Chairman was right too often, anathema to any Conservative when contemplating Federal Oversight of any kind.

The Congressional Budget Office might again incur the anger of Conservatives with this Estimate of the potential Cost of Iraq and Afghanistan. Once again the Information is couched in Fedspeak to lessen the onset of Conservative wrath with little Publicity attendant, and based upon a best-Case scenario where the violence will decrease. I see few grounds for violence reduction in these Contested areas, except for the aspirations of both political Parties; who have no ready Answers for an expanded Conflict. Both Nation-Building and neoConservative Domination of the Region wane in the face of continued Violence, and Our Enemies in the Region gain by Our inability to control the Situation; remember those Enemies are who are funding the Violence in the first place. I would place the CBO scenario in the overly-optimistic column, and suggest that an escalation of Violence is not only likely, but probable. lgl