Outsourcing is going to be one of those absurd non-issue issues that has the life span of one electoral season, but one can learn quite a bit of good economics from seeing how a capable scholar dissects the issue. For those who would like to watch some skillful cutting, read this column by Bill Anderson.
Bill begins by saying that he isn’t going to comment on the foolishness of appointing “czars” for particular subjects. The administration wants to have a “manufacturing czar” now. Okay, I’ll comment on it. In a market economy, we do not need “czars” to regulate, subsidize, exhort, threaten, or do anything else. All that such individuals can do is to upset the great gyroscope of competition. Should the US have more manufacturing? Less? No one knows. Just leave it to the free market.
