30 Years Ago in Reason

“The history of the [Federal Trade Commission’s] intervenor funding program—which has so far handed out nearly $2 million—is one of helping its friends and ignoring its adversaries. The result has been an almost total anti-business, pro-regulation bias in the allocation of what are, after all, taxpayers’ funds.”

—Morgan Norval, “Kept Critics”

“Aid dispensed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank serves primarily to prevent Third World governments from defaulting on their loans from Citibank, Chase Manhattan, and Manufacturers Hanover Bank. Direct U.S. aid—even its supporters admit—is spent largely on contracts with U.S. multinationals to construct huge government-owned infrastructure projects, thereby helping to increase the power of ruling elites in these countries—witness the Shah of Iran.”

—Robert Poole Jr., “Rethinking Foreign Aid”

“It should be noted that, although the German revival took place during the heyday of Keynesian economics, Keynesian principles were explicitly repudiated by [Ludwig] Erhard and the other German policymakers.”

—Bruce Bartlett, “Supply-Side Success Stories” —July 1981