Interest Rates, Video Games and an Economist Debate

Investors expect the Federal Reserve to enact a rare full percentage point cut in interest rates.

A federal appeals court rules that Minnesota cannot fine kids for renting violent video games.

Leading financial magazine The Economist holds an online debate over whether government regulation of business has made recent economic problems better or worse.

1. CONSUMER

Investors expect the Federal Reserve to enact a rare full percentage point cut in interest rates.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Special Projects Counsel Hans Bader on the Fed’s misguided strategy:

“The Federal Reserve is trying to save irresponsible borrowers from themselves by cutting interest rates to ridiculously low levels, even though that will trigger increased inflation rates (which are already rising) and bring back the stagflation that plagued the 1970s. Amazingly enough, Congress is saying that the Fed’s indulgence towards borrowers is not enough, and liberal Congressmen and Senators want to bail out irresponsible borrowers by blocking foreclosures or writing off mortgage loans that exceed current home value (which most often happens to borrowers who made little or no down payment because they neglected to save any money for a down payment).”

 

2. LEGAL

A federal appeals court rules that Minnesota cannot fine kids for renting violent video games.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist and Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer on where the best video game ratings come from:

“We find that, while no media ratings system can or will ever achieve perfection, the best rating systems have three attributes: They attempt to describe, rather than prescribe, what entertainment media should contain; they are particularly suited to their particular media forms; and they were created with little or no direct input from government.”

 

3. BUSINESS

Leading financial magazine The Economist holds an online debate over whether government regulation of business has made recent economic problems better or worse.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau speaks for the latter conclusion:

“With the multiple players involved in mortgage woes, the current crisis may seem at first appearance a failure of decentralized risk management. But in at least one important respect, the failure was due to reliance on top-down institutions protected by regulation. These are America’s two main credit rating agencies. Since the 1970s, The SEC has blocked competition by not accrediting competing firms, while other US financial regulators have required institutions such as banks and pension funds to only carry assets given a high rating by these firms.”

 

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION

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