Are Free Markets a False Idol? Or is Regulation a Trojan Horse?

Peter Goodman of the New York Times writes an interesting retrospective of free markets entitled “The Free Market: A False Idol After All?”  The article’s basic conclusion is that unfettered free markets (unhampered by regulation)…systems merely based upon ideology, cannot stand without some basic rules of government.  And I don’t disagree.  In the short run, the market can be as fickle and irrational as Lindsay Lohan after a few Vicadin, some blow, and a rude text from her boy-toy of the week.  Just watch any blue-chip stock get slaughtered after missing some analyst’s quarterly earnings estimates by 2 cents.  But Adam Smith’s invisible hand, in the long run, will put resources where they can be invested most efficiently…creating the most value.  And I truly believe that.

The problem illuminated by Goodman’s article isn’t that we have government regulation…it’s that the same knee-jerkedness that renders a short term market stupid is what’s driving legislation through Congress.  Politicians are elected for a term of years, not decades, and in order to make a difference…an elected official must be able to pass a bill quickly, no matter how hastily researched or ill-conceived.  Republicans and Democrats alike are killing America’s competitiveness in an increasingly globalized world.

The latest disgrace is the Bush Administration’s efforts to freeze adjustable mortgage rates for families who cannot afford the contractual step-ups in rate that will soon torpedo many of them into foreclosure.   Bill Gross, who manages one of the largest bond funds in the world at PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company), is one of the most brilliant minds in the world when it comes to markets and capturing value…and even he is pro-bailing out the American Idiot.  Now, Gross, who is quite possibly the greatest bond trader alive today, may have some super-complicated, multiple-degrees-of-separation reason for why this will create value that none of us can see…but based upon the interviews he has given, and the articles he has written, it’s just plain ole bleeding heart self-defeating behaviour.

To bail out people who borrowed more than they can afford is to teach America that the government will always be there to bail them out.  There’s no way a society who doesn’t have to develop its own good judgement will ever compete in a global economy.

To quote the article: “Every regulation reduces people’s freedom,” said David R. Henderson, a libertarian economist at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. “The more regulation we get, the worse we do.”

Enron and Worldcom cooked their books and stole from their employees.  The government’s knee-jerk reaction was Sarbanes-Oxley, which is so cumbersome and expense to comply with, that companies are leaving the U.S. rather than spend the billions required to comply.  Two bad apples (really bad apples, granted), sparked hastily drafted regulation that is making good companies so uncompetitive in a global market, that they are actually leaving the country for freer markets.  

There’s a fantastic, tongue-in-cheek article written by former bond trader and author of “Liar’s Poker,” Michael Lewis, where he jokes about how an overly paternalistic America has dared him and his wealthy, productive friends to up and move to Dubai.  His point is that pandering politicians can scapegoat successful people, because they are easy targets, and work to tax the hell out of them…b/c they must be doing something evil…making so much money in the first place.  How can these select few entrepreneurs and hedge fund managers earn so much money?  They must be unethical and worthy of our scorn.  As soon as someone makes $100mm, a mentality has been created that has trained people to try to pull them down.  Its driven by jealousy, guilt, and in the case of people like Hillary Clinton, pathological ego (and hypocrisy).  Michael Lewis ends his comedic piece daring the IRS to tax him more…he’ll always stay a step ahead.  And if not, its a mobile world.  There are plenty of places with low taxes who will encourage the forward-thinkers, the innovators, thecreaters of wealth and value.  Are free markets a false idol, or is the belief in the notion an expression of envy and a lack of foresight?

If these sentiments trickle into health care, we will be a third-world, possibly Arabic-speaking country withing a few generations..

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Let’s Pick on Canada Now…

In September 2003, Harvard Medical Professor Dr. Steffie Woolhandler had this to say in the New England Journal of Medicine: “A large sum might be saved in the United States if administrative costs could be trimmed by implementing a Canadian-style health care system.”

While I’m sure Dr. Woolhandler is a brilliant clinician and activist, I firmly believe that most of the economic data will show that a single-payer health system (which resembles Canada more than the U.S.) cannot provide access to all, or perhaps even most… and would cost this country more in lost lives and productivity, not to mention, increased taxes.

The Frasier Institute, a non-partisan, Canadian research organization recently released some scary data: wait times for Canadians needing surgery or other therapeutic treatment hit an all time high of 18 weeks in 2007.  That’s over 4 months.  “Despite government promises and the billions of dollars funneled into the Canadian health care system, the average patient waited more than 18 weeks in 2007 between seeing their family doctor and receiving the surgery or treatment they required,” said Nadeem Esmail, Director of Health System Performance Studies.

This is an increase from 2006 (18.3 vs. 17.8 weeks).  Some provinces are worse than others, like Saskatchewan (27.2 weeks), New Brunswick (25.2 weeks) and Nova Scotia (24.8 weeks).  The wait time is roughly equal parts waiting to see a specialist (once you’ve seen a primary care physician and gotten your required referral) and waiting to receive treatment once you’ve seen a specialist.  Given the growing shortage of primary care physicians in Canada, these numbers don’t even factor in the time it takes to get an appointment to see the primary care doc.  

Diagnostic technology suffers from similar exaggerated wait times in Canada.  Average queues for a CT scan are 4.8 weeks.  For an MRI, 10.1 weeks.  Oftentimes these types of diagnostics are needed to check for imminent, if not emergency medical problems.  A close friend recently spent a week in the hospital with multiple pulmonary embolisms.  This was a life threatening condition that was detected literally just in the nick of time with a CT scan..which was administered within an hour of arriving at his doctor’s office.  If he had been in Toronto, he would likely have died.  Blood clots don’t patiently wait 4 weeks…

In Canada, people are waiting for 827,429 surgical procedures.  This is a 7.8% increase from last year…and it’s getting worse.  And with data showing that famous and politically-connected people routinely jump the queues, it’s difficult to even make the argument that everyone is given the same level of access.

Esmail concludes by saying: “This grim portrait is the legacy of a medical system offering low expectations cloaked in lofty rhetoric. It’s one defended by special interest groups with a stake in maintaining the status quo. The only way to solve the system’s most curable disease – lengthy wait times that are consistently and significantly longer than physicians feel is clinically reasonable – is for  substantial reform of the Canadian health care system.” (emphasis mine).

Lofty rhetoric is what gets votes…

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