Don’t Leave Political Reform To Glenn Reynolds

Glenn Reynolds expresses what I find so questionable about libats – that their libertarian criticisms are scattershot, just as cogent or practical as any other interest group’s, and are based on a selective view of history.

Russ: Do you really think, though, that that trend, that there isn’t–don’t you think that’s a long-standing trend in American history, that they don’t trust the government? I think if you ask folks if they trust their own representative in Congress, they say: Congress is a bunch of bums, but not my guy. And they also say the same thing about [?] corporations: My boss is decent; most of them, awful. Isn’t that a common long-standing view of most Americans?

Glenn: To some degree, sure. Our country is literally founded on distrust of government. But Pew does say that the numbers are the worst they’ve been since they’ve been asking the question. So, the trend is not our friend. Trust in the Federal Government is at a historic low. And they say it’s the first time a majority of the public has said the Federal Government threatens their personal rights and freedoms. So I do think there is more than what I would regard as a healthy distrust of government. I think that it goes a bit beyond that. And I think one of the changes–in the column I quoted a science fiction writer named Jerry Pournelle, pretty old, he’s been around a while; and he wrote in 2008, he said:

Pots And Kettles

Bank of Korea chairperson, Kim Choong Soo, worries about Japan’s suddenly strong yen.

The yen fell against the dollar and the won after the G-20 refrained from censuring Japanese policies that have driven the currency’s decline. Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong Soo said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in Moscow that the monetary authority will closely monitor the impact of Japan’s policy stimulus on the South Korean economy.

“There were expectations the G-20 would comment on the Japanese currency and that didn’t happen,” said Jeon Seung Ji, an analyst at Samsung Futures Inc. in Seoul. “That’s prompting the drop in the won, which had gained a lot” before the meeting, she said.