ROTF Laffering! Right on, Dan! I'll see your Rodger and
raise ya James Watt. What a guy - I think he lasted about
2 years, finally riding off into the sunset (literally,
if you saw his swan song to the networks) after defending
the composition of an appointed board as consisting of
" a black, a latino, a woman, two jews, and a cripple".
You can't make this stuff up.

Before Andy pours the boiling oil over me, I'd like to
take note of Steve Baldwin's point, "what free market?"
more or less. Smith espoused the virtues of an "efficient"
market, as one composed of many buyers and sellers. This
hardly describes any modern economy, which consist of
few sellers and millions of buyers of practically any
commodity. The modern economic environment is one of cartel
and oligopoly secured by political power, in which a rising
tide raises the rent first, and then the boat. Maybe.
This is not to say that competition does'nt exist. It
certainly does in many niche markets, pgming PICS, for
instance, and even some large-scale enterprises like PC
software, which are run by the exuberant egos of their
founders rather than "professional" management.
To pretend that the world works this way, per Art Laffer,
is simply not so.

My $.02 - Apologies to all, except Art.

Jack

Dan Michaels wrote:
> The name James Watt, Sec of the Interior 1980-??, selling off the
> entire american west, comes to mind.

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