THE WEEK

Actual Case History 81941, How Government Intervention Messes Up the Marketplace. Some eight years ago the Feds noticed that their zinc stockpile was a little low, and laid in a mountain of zinc at premium prices. They also established price supports for zinc, bringing in and subsidizing inefficient, marginal producers, penalizing efficient producers through the contraction of the market due to artificially high prices, and, of course, glutting the market with overproduction. Within the last year or two, market demand for zinc has caught up with the overproduction, and zinc is again in short supply; the price of zinc will soon rise; now will the government act positively to strike a balance between efficient production and economical consumption of zinc? Will it in short, to ease a mess of its own making, release some of its massive overstock of zinc, or lower the quotas on the import of Canadian zinc? Nope. Instead, ultra-marginal producers, espying a quick buck in the extra high prices of the moment, will be subsidized to open inefficient zinc deposits for production, which would fossilize the snafu.

Are you a Federal Executive, GS-14 or better? Who desires to know more about Critical Issues and Decisions? Well, the United States Department of Agriculture, it transpires, subsidizes not just farmers, but also intellectuals. The series this year features six lecturers. Two of them are routine technicians (an economist and an architect). The other four are Mr. Harry Ashmore, of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (nee, Fund for the Republic); Max Lerner, columnist for the New York Post; David Riesman, of Harvard, and Erich Fromm. The first two gentlemen we would characterize as belonging to the moderate wing of the extreme Left, the last two as belonging to the left wing of the extreme Left. It would be nice, wouldn’t it, if Mazda Johnson would turn off not only unnecessary light bulbs, but also unnecessary intellectuals?

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Barry Goldwater

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Actual Case History 81941, How Government Intervention Messes Up the Marketplace. Some eight years ago the Feds noticed that their zinc stockpile was a little low, and laid in a mountain of zinc at premium prices. They also established price supports for zinc, bringing in and subsidizing inefficient, marginal producers, penalizing efficient producers through the contraction of the market due to artificially high prices, and, of course, glutting the market with overproduction. Within the last year or two, market demand for zinc has caught up with the overproduction, and zinc is again in short supply; the price of zinc will soon rise; now will the government act positively to strike a balance between efficient production and economical consumption of zinc? Will it in short, to ease a mess of its own making, release some of its massive overstock of zinc, or lower the quotas on the import of Canadian zinc? Nope. Instead, ultra-marginal producers, espying a quick buck in the extra high prices of the moment, will be subsidized to open inefficient zinc deposits for production, which would fossilize the snafu.

Are you a Federal Executive, GS-14 or better? Who desires to know more about Critical Issues and Decisions? Well, the United States Department of Agriculture, it transpires, subsidizes not just farmers, but also intellectuals. The series this year features six lecturers. Two of them are routine technicians (an economist and an architect). The other four are Mr. Harry Ashmore, of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (nee, Fund for the Republic); Max Lerner, columnist for the New York Post; David Riesman, of Harvard, and Erich Fromm. The first two gentlemen we would characterize as belonging to the moderate wing of the extreme Left, the last two as belonging to the left wing of the extreme Left. It would be nice, wouldn’t it, if Mazda Johnson would turn off not only unnecessary light bulbs, but also unnecessary intellectuals?