The Week

Of 1.8 million tax returns audited last year, 1.3 million contained “errors.” The IRS estimates that 5 million potential taxpayers didn’t even file a return, costing the government some $6 billion. Tax experts outside the IRS say the loss from nonfiling was closer to $30 billion. Meanwhile, the IRS agents are busy trying to keep over 100,000 oil producers and distributors from stockpiling “unreasonable” amounts of oil products, or from charging “excessive” prices. The definitions of “unreasonable” and “excessive” are presumably determined by what the agent had for breakfast that morning. UPI quotes a stabilization official as saying, “If the guy on one corner is elling at 55 cents a gallon and the others in the neighborhood are selling at considerably less, then you’ve got something to complain about.” Wouldn’t it be easier all around just to drive to the other corner?

Herbert Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, floated a trial balloon on behalf of a planned economy at a meeting of the American Economic Association. “If the government is going to be as much involved in details as it’s becoming,” suggested Mr. Stein, then we may need a huge coordinating agency, like Japan’s 500-person Ministry of International Trade and Industry. “There’s the Cost of Living-Council and the Federal Energy Office. God knows who or what we’ll have next.” With academic jobs in short supply, Mr. Stein’s suggestion is bound to be welcomed by other economists.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

Time Magazine

Of 1.8 million tax returns audited last year, 1.3 million contained “errors.” The IRS estimates that 5 million potential taxpayers didn’t even file a return, costing the government some $6 billion. Tax experts outside the IRS say the loss from nonfiling was closer to $30 billion. Meanwhile, the IRS agents are busy trying to keep over 100,000 oil producers and distributors from stockpiling “unreasonable” amounts of oil products, or from charging “excessive” prices. The definitions of “unreasonable” and “excessive” are presumably determined by what the agent had for breakfast that morning. UPI quotes a stabilization official as saying, “If the guy on one corner is elling at 55 cents a gallon and the others in the neighborhood are selling at considerably less, then you’ve got something to complain about.” Wouldn’t it be easier all around just to drive to the other corner?

Herbert Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, floated a trial balloon on behalf of a planned economy at a meeting of the American Economic Association. “If the government is going to be as much involved in details as it’s becoming,” suggested Mr. Stein, then we may need a huge coordinating agency, like Japan’s 500-person Ministry of International Trade and Industry. “There’s the Cost of Living-Council and the Federal Energy Office. God knows who or what we’ll have next.” With academic jobs in short supply, Mr. Stein’s suggestion is bound to be welcomed by other economists.