The Rules of the Game

Writing in the Washington Post, columnist George Will quotes Russell Roberts of George Mason University on the danger of New Deal-like attempts to straighten out a misbehaving economy:

"By acting without rhyme or reason, politicians have destroyed the rules of the game. There is no reason to invest, no reason to take risk, no reason to be prudent, no reason to look for buyers if your firm is failing. Everything is up in the air and as a result, the only prudent policy is to wait and see what the government will do next. The frenetic efforts of FDR had the same impact: Net investment was negative through much of the 1930s."

Read the rest of "Same Old New Deal" by George Will here.

Here you can read more from Russell Roberts on why the rules of the game are important.