Murray L. Weidenbaum

The High Cost of Government Regulation

Mr. Wiedenbaum feels that the steadily growing intrusion of the public bureaucracy into the private sector, in matters ranging from environmental regulation to job safety, has inhibited the healthy growth of our economy. The majority of public policy changes affecting business-government relations in recent years has been in the direction of greater government intervention - environmental controls, job safety inspections, equal employment opportunity enforcement, consumer product safety regulations, energy restrictions, etc. Costs resulting from government regulations are analyzed by grouping them into three categories: (1) cost of administering the regulatory agencies; (2) indirect cost of compliance by the private sector; (3) induced effects of regulation. Mr. Wiedenbaum says the impetus for this government power over business has not come from the industries being regulated; those companies usually claim the benefits to them of the new regulation are negative. Public policy tends to be dominated, he suggests, by organized and compact interest groups who attain their benefits at the expense of the more-diffuse and larger body of consumers. The nature of those pressure groups has changed from business villians (like the railroad barons) to self-styled representatives of the Public Interest. 2 figures, 5 tables.

Economic Warriors Against Terrorism

What economic effects will last, or emerge, and what policies should be put in place to defend the U.S. economy, particularly economic expectations? Beyond government policies, the private enterprise system may have a role to play that is not yet obvious.

How Government Reduces Employment

Murray Weidenbaum shows how the federal government conducts many activities that affect the ability of the private sector to create jobs.

The Shifting Roles of Business and Government in the World Economy

With the changing global marketplace, business firms, governments, and the consumer need to be able to understand and adapt to changing economic and technological trends in order to benefit.

A Challenge to Washington Think Tanks

Have the nations most prominent think tanks done their job? This former high-ranking government economist thinks they have not. Their duty is to elevate the level of discourse. He thinks they could do far better.

Korea, the United States, and the Global Marketplace

ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS ill the Republic of Korea (South Korea) that have occurred in recent decades have been profound and remarkable, making it one of the most vibrant and thriving democracies in Asia. At the same time, it has become a regional as well as global economic powerhouse. But although Korea is in the midst of perhaps its most fundamental economic adjustment in modern times, it is also taking on the key characteristics of the most advanced industrial economies. This process is inevitably raising the same sort of criticism faced by the United States. Koreas extraordinary economic development, especially over the past half-century, has been based heavily on the growth of manufacturing centered on the chaebol. However, Korea is now witnessing much of its traditional manufacturing activity moving to lower-cost areas, notably China. That development should be viewed as neither

Restoring public confidence in american business

American business leaders have hurt public confidence in the private enterprise system. Without sustained changes in the way corporations, including top management, conduct business, a new round of pervasive, arbitrary government regulation will ensue.

Recasting the Role of Government to Promote Economic Prosperity

No government in the world has an agency with the mission of depressing the economy or accelerating the rate of inflation. Yet, many government actions especially taxation, government spending, and regulation have those undesirable effects. The paper focuses on government regulation of business, where the costs are especially insidious, and what can be done to reform this regulation. Government decision-makers often forget the fundamental fact that individuals and private organizations have tremendous capability to deal with the shortcomings of a modern economy on their own. Relying more heavily on private initiative moves us closer to a free society while simultaneously providing powerful incentives for improved economic performance.

Three scenarios for the future of China

As we begin to think about the twenty-first century, we are entering a time of fundamental global change. the most dramatic shift will be the movement of China to the status of great power. Yet, the only specific forecast for the future of China that we can make with confidence is that a straight-line extrapolation is most unlikely to occur. China will not continue to grow at double digit rates for the coming decade. Nor is the rest of Southeast Asia going to grow at the 8 percent that has been registered for the past decade and more. Nor is everything going to go smoothly.

1996: The Adam Smith Address an Ambitious Agenda for Economic Growth

In this presidential election year, it has become fashionable to advocate faster economic growth as the elixir to cure all that ails the American society. Surely an average annual growth rate in the neighborhood of 2 percent is anemic, whether we view it in historical terms or by the current standards of the economies of China and Southeast Asia. Faster growth produces all sorts of good things, such as lower budget deficits, more new jobs, higher incomes, and rising living standards. Thus, who can object to the general idea of achieving larger economic output?