Reason Writers Around Town: Matt Welch Debates Dean Baker Over Who's Getting it Worse From Washington: Detroit or Wall Street?
On Day Two of an L.A. Times auto-bailout Dust-up, Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch argues that Wall Street firms are more subject to federal intervention than the Big 2.5, and that "there's a good reason why all of Europe […] has been methodically selling off state ownerships in nearly every single sector while expressing skepticism at Obama's nationalization binge: Governments are lousy at running businesses." Economist Dean Baker counters that "because it was the bankers who wrecked the auto industry, it makes it especially difficult to stomach a situation in which Detroit gets micromanaged while the Wall Street crew continues to do business as usual."