By a unanimous vote, a U.S. House committee has approved a measure that would restore 2,100 dealers either cut or scheduled to be closed by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC.

The vote comes amid growing support in the House for the proposal, with more than 200 cosponsors signed on to a similar bill. Dealers will hold a lobbying event next Tuesday to press for the plan in the House and Senate.

The bill would turn back the clock to before the companies filed for bankruptcy, restoring the 789 dealers cut by Chrysler and 1,300 dealers GM chose to wind down.

…“This legislation, if passed, would put our long-term viability at risk,” said GM spokesman Greg Martin.

Daniel Ikenson at Cato@Liberty calls for a boycott:

What makes these actions evil, and not just stupid, is that Congress really does not care about whether GM is profitable or not. The Henry Waxmans of the Hill only care that GM produces green vehicles, regardless of their exorbitant costs of production and scant consumer demand. And the John Dingells (among whom are included the 200 sponsors of the bill to restore the dealerships) only want GM to provide jobs, regardless of the fact that GM needs to scale back its labor force substantially to even approach the realm of commercial viability. In other words, Congress demands that Americans subsidize GM because GM’s short-term viability is good for their political fortunes.

Enough. Show Congress that you won’t comply and that you won’t be pawns. Boycott GM. Boycott GM until the government relinquishes its grip on the company’s decision making process.

I gave my own reasons for boycotting GM last month.

Related posts:

1. Why I Boycott GM
2. The General Motors Quagmire
3. The Car Czar Is Out

The Obama administration is also proposing an overhaul of financial regulation that would include tougher capital requirements for big banks, tighter regulation of hedge funds and a new consumer protection agency with broad power to regulate credit cards, mortgages and other consumer lending.

In the case of oil and gas trading, regulators made it clear that they were willing to move, without waiting for Congress to act on Mr. Obama’s overhaul, invoking their existing powers.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it would consider imposing volume limits on trading of energy futures by purely financial investors and that it already has adopted tougher information requirements aimed at identifying the role of hedge funds and traders who swap contracts outside of regulated exchanges like the New York Mercantile Exchange.

It’s not just democrats in on the act, this time.  Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy teamed up on the pages of the WSJ to call for more government when it comes to oil prices. This line of attack is based on pure economic ignorance.  I’ve responded to it in the past, so this time I’ll just point you to some bigger authorities than myself.

Reason Magazine: Rant: Burn the “Speculators”!
Cafe Hayek: A Win-Win and Oily Speculations
Robert P. Murphy: Oil Speculators: Bad or Good

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Case in point: MSNBC’s David Shuster.  At approximately 4 p.m., July 7, Shuster graced the Twitterverse with this nugget:

“By the way, for all of you watching on DirectTV and wondering why MSNBC is not in HD, ask mr. Murdoch/newscorps, the owner of DirectTV.”

…This is the stuff on which conspiracy theorists thrive.  The only problem is, neither Murdoch nor News Corporation (the parent company of Fox News) owns DirecTV.  That company was bought out by a subsidiary of the Liberty Media conglomerate, which gained a controlling share of DirecTV over a period of time between late 2006 and May 9 of this year.

Mr. Shuster should consider his networks poor ratings as a more likely reason for DirecTV’s apparent slight.

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A town that seemed on the road to becoming a ghost town has taken a turn toward prosperity despite the recession, thanks to an automaker.

Korean car manufacturer Kia plans to open a sprawling automobile factory in tiny West Point, Georgia, by the end of the year. The boon has already spurred economic growth — and just plain excitement — among residents, said Mayor Drew Ferguson.

“We jokingly call it Kia-ville,” said Ferguson, a 42-year-old dentist helping to oversee expansion of West Point, population 3,500. The announcement is drawing workers and businesses to the community about 80 miles south of Atlanta.

“The revitalization of the community is touching every aspect,” Ferguson said. “We have infrastructure projects, new subdivisions going up, hotel professional services that are all needed to support the massive manufacturing.”

Overall, West Point stands to gain 20,000 jobs as a result of the factory during the next five years, Ferguson said.

Somehow, this ‘foreign’ automaker managed to create all these American jobs, and they even did it without any bailouts from the federal government.  I have a question for all those who claimed that we couldn’t survive “the death of the American automotive industry.” For the Americans that either build or buy Kia cars, what difference does it make that the company is foreign owned?

Can we stop letting xenophobia drive economic policy now?

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I am saddened to see an elected official promoting such illiberal and undemocratic views right here in America:

“It appears that the Republican Party leadership in the Congress has made a decision that they want to deny President Obama success, which means, in my mind, they are rooting against the country, as well,” the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman told WAMU radio host Diane Rehm on Tuesday morning, promoting his new book, “The Waxman Report.”

Barack Obama is a politician.  He is not the United States of America.

Related posts:

1. Everyone Did Know, Just Not The Democrats
2. $31 Million
3. Here Come The Tax Increase Plans

Americans pay much more than they should for their food. Thanks to a thicket of subsidies and tariffs that support American farmers and tilt the growing field against cheaper foreign producers, we get ripped off twice: first as taxpayers who ante up for roughly $25 billion in agricultural subsidies each year ($4 billion for milk alone in 2006); then as consumers who pay higher prices at the checkout counter because we can’t take advantage of low-price imports.

…So, how can we get more Americans to look up from their feedbags and demand that Congress restore some sense to the marketplace? I recommend a little truth-in-packaging. Just as food manufacturers now list their products’ ingredients and nutritional value, they should also disclose their “free-market” value.

To wit, every product whose ingredients benefit from a subsidy should include the following language on the label:

“This product has been subsidized by the U.S. government at taxpayer expense. For more information, please visit usda.gov.”

And every product that benefits from tariff protection should have the following language on the label:

“This product is protected from foreign competition by U.S. import tariffs. Its price is higher as a result. For more information, please visit usitc.gov.”

Now there’s a regulation that makes sense.  That, unfortunately, also means it will never happen.

I must take issue with one thing Gibney says, though.  He says “subsidies and tariffs were originally intended to help protect small farmers–a purpose they’ve largely outlived.”  The idea that they have “outlived” their purpose implies they once served any purpose beyond vote buying.  This is a fiction.

Other than that minor quibble it’s an excellent post.  I’d like to take the idea a step further and apply it to all products receiving government assistance.  A good way to solve the problem of concentrated interests versus diffused costs would be to make people actually see the consequences of the bad policy coming out of Washington.  Knowing their food has been made a little bit more expensive is one thing, but seeing that same little bit addedto the hundreds of products they use every day would make them realize that it adds up mighty high.  But like I said, this will never happen. Forgive me for dreaming.

Hat tip: Cato@Liberty

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Hat tip: Club for Growth

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Pope Benedict called on Tuesday for a “world political authority” to manage the global economy and for more government regulation of national economies to pull the world out of the current crisis and avoid a repeat.

…The pope said every economic decision had a moral consequence and called for “forms of redistribution” of wealth overseen by governments to help those most affected by crises.

Benedict said “there is an urgent need of a true world political authority” whose task would be “to manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result.”

We can now count the pope among freedom’s many enemies.  He should stick to religion.

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Up to 350 of the rare animals will be sold this year alone from the Kruger National Park under fundraising plans drawn up by the South African government.

Animal rights groups have criticised the move and warned it would undermine conservation efforts at the reserve, which is visited by 1.5 million tourists every year.

Steve Smit, spokesman for Animal Rights Africa, said: “The idea of herding up animals from a major wildlife reserve and selling them to private institutions is outrageous.

…Bosses started selling white rhino from Kruger in 2002 for around £12,000 (R150,000) each but have since sold an average of just 70 a year.

…Mr Smit added: “We have a huge amount of anecdotal evidence that suggests a large number of the animals that have been previously been sold have been shot by hunters - sometimes almost immediately.”

“Private institutions,” what horror! Mr. Smit concern that many of the rhinos will be bought by private hunters may well be true, and I object to any of them that might use drugs or tranquilizers when offering tourist hunters the opportunity to shoot them in controlled game parks.  I do not, however, object to their selling such an opportunity at all.

So long as parks are run by entrepreneurs (Kruger National Park is a concern in this regard, as it is operated by the South African government), then animals that are able to fetch a high price will remain safe from the threat of extinction.  Why would a park owner allow white rhinos (Kruger currently houses 4,500) to run out when there is a significant financial interest in ensuring their continued supply?  Allowing parks to sell large game, even for immediate killing, ensures the continued survival of those species and brings in the funds necessary to run the splendorous parks so loved by “animal rights groups.”

The real danger is that parks run by governments, rather than private groups, may not always be sufficiently motivated by long-term financial concerns to adequately protect such valuable commodities.  Examples of this are not hard to come by in Africa, where Marxist guerrilla governments slaughtered game to the brink of extinction to fund their wars.  But when they were convinced to grant hunting concessions to private owners - for a hefty fee, of course - animals fared much better.  Hunters who had a stake in running a profitable concession had strong incentive not to run out of stock.  They were also animal experts who understood how to keep a herd healthy, and they were vigilant in fighting off illegal poachers.  As far as I’m concerned, the more parks or hunting concessions that can be placed into private hands, the better.

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Weeks after legalizing the sale of marijuana to sick people, lawmakers have voted to explore how much Rhode Island might collect in revenue if it were to make all sales of marijuana legal and impose a “sin tax” of $35 per ounce.

During the General Assembly’s aborted rush to adjournment Friday, the Senate approved a resolution — introduced earlier the same day — to create a nine-member special commission to study a swath of issues surrounding marijuana. Among them: “The experience of individuals and families sentenced for violating marijuana laws … The experience of states and European countries, such as California, Massachusetts and the Netherlands, which have decriminalized the sale and use of marijuana.”

$35 sin tax per ounce?! Talk about price gouging!

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