Tuesday
(0)I am still catching up with my email backlog after a week in which my server was 'under attack' by a storm of spam. High on my 'must read' list are the transcripts of the various DOD press briefings. I found a gem in this briefing from Saturday, given by Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, Deputy Director for Coalition Operations; and Dan Senor, Senior Adviser, CPA. In the words of Dan Senor:
"And if you look at where we are now, unemployment is about a third of where it was when we arrived. There's an unbelievably liberalized economy here, free trade, no -- outside of natural resources, no limits on foreign investment, tax rates capped, personal income tax and corporate income tax rates capped at 15 percent provides in the long run a very foreign investment friendly environment for Iraq, which is good, while we are in the midst of deploying some $18 billion just from the United States alone, not to include other commitments of the international community. Independent central bank."
Virtually anyone who reads Samizdata would understand tax rates this low necessarily lead to economic growth and the betterment of all citizens.
Could we perhaps borrow Paul Bremer for a year or two? I believe he may be in need of a job...
Hell, I wish the U.S. Armed Forces would create the same scenario in the United States.
Take a number, Dale.
:=)
Posted by Kim du Toit at July 6, 2004 05:46 PM
Getting a benevolent, libertarian dictator would have its advantages -- until he decided to stop being benevolent or libertarian. The odds of getting Bremer or even Lee Kwan Yu are low and the odds of getting Mugabe or Milosevic or too high. Or, even if you got a good guy, his son and heir would be a Uday or Caligula.
Better to just take our chances with democracy and get as close as we can by a process of muddle to the nearly ideal economic program now prevailing in Iraq.
Posted by Lexington Green at July 7, 2004 03:35 AM
Getting a benevolent, libertarian dictator would have its advantages -- until he decided to stop being benevolent or libertarian. The odds of getting Bremer or even Lee Kwan Yu are low and the odds of getting Mugabe or Milosevic are too high. Or, even if you got a good guy, his son and heir would be a Uday or Caligula.
Better to just take our chances with democracy and get as close as we can by a process of muddle to the nearly ideal economic program now prevailing in Iraq.
Posted by Lexington Green at July 7, 2004 03:36 AM
The English institutionalised muddling through, known in Continental Europe as the 'Scientific Method'.
Adopted with gusto by our American cousins, it is the new world order. Happily so, don't you think?
You don't think? Better Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Coalition of the Unwilling, Bin Laden? Sip your late (e grave, en Francais).
Posted by Anointiata Delenda Est at July 7, 2004 02:07 PM
The comparison of the income tax rates is completely irrelevant since the government owns the oil .
Posted by David Nissen at May 26, 2005 10:44 PM
I agree that the state ownership of the oil is an inherently bad thing and will lead to corruption and inefficiency. But at least the State's voracity is being confined to mineral wealth and is not dragging down the disposable income of the people who really create jobs, wealth and prosperity.
Governments mostly differ in the amount of economic damage they do. The more economic liberty and the less the state steals, the better the economy.
Posted by Dale Amon at May 26, 2005 10:53 PM
