Wait. Are we saying the same thing?

Chuck Leddy has an instructive review in the Globe of Robert Kuttner’s The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity.

One of the biggest problems in America, according to Kuttner and Leddy, is the fallout from the “deregulation craze” of the last three decades. Leddy defines this craze as the belief that “free markets will solve everything.”

Interestingly (and paradoxically) Leddy cites examples of government intervention as instances of the “deregulation craze” at work. In fact, Leddy approvingly quotes Kuttner as calling the government a “crisis enabler.” Free markets lumped in with government intervention? What gives?

Leddy, Kuttner, and many of our friends on the left-hand side of things, sometimes miss the distinction between Big Business and free markets.

Big Business and free markets are not the same, and neither are their interests. Oil companies, for example, may cry for deregulation when it suits them, but favor burdensome rules and red-tape when it might hurt their competitors.

It’s in the nature of special interest groups to oppose general principles. That’s why they’re called special. When a special interest group (like oil companies, for example) calls for deregulation, the next question should always be: deregulation of what, exactly, and for whom?

Related to this issue, Reason has an interview on their site with NYT reporter David Cay Johnston, who recently wrote Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill). Writing from the other end of the spectrum, Johnston essentially agrees with Kuttner (and Leddy) that government meddling in markets ultimately hurts people and communities.

Examples... Superstores getting tax breaks from towns, and subsequently wiping out smaller competitors. Cities raising taxes to subsidize private companies (like George Bush's Texas Rangers). Barron Hilton playing the courts until he found a judge that would undermine the plain meaning of his father's will, which had left the family's fortune to a charitable foundation.

When Big Business and Big Government get into bed together, we no longer have free markets.

I have no objection to people getting wealthy. Just get wealthy off hard work and enterprise, not getting government to pass rules no one knows about that reach into my pocket and take money out of it.

Some wisdom from Mr Johnston.