From Reuters:
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Obama said he would name a team of managers to ensure that billions of dollars slated for infrastructure projects would be spent wisely.
"The American people are watching. They need this plan to work," Obama said at a gathering at the White House with dozens of the nation's mayors.
"And they expect to see the money they worked so hard to earn spent in its intended purpose without waste, inefficiency, or fraud."
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With this announcement, Mr Obama has answered the Roman quip "who watches the watchers?" Free Exchange proposes a better question: who watches those who watch the watchers?
James Buchanan, founder of the Public Choice school of economic thought, believed that politics is run as a business. Politicians and bureaucrats act in their self-interest to accrue votes, much as businessman work to maximize their profits.
Fraud is easy to identify, wast and efficiency less so. With the definition of waste and efficiency left open to interpretation, Mr Obama's watchers will have to supply their own. It is at this point that Mr Buchanan jumps up and down frantically, waving his hands. Is building a road that doesn't serve anyone but create jobs "wasteful"? Or is a project that uses federal money to fund scientific exploration inefficient? Politics, not economics, plays the biggest role in this watcher committee.
Free Exchange proposes a project that ought to be funded: fast transport within each state connecting major towns with minor cities and minor cities with major cities; an intrastate subway system of sorts. A project like this not only creates jobs but creates a quick, cheap, alternative to automobiles; your correspondent is proposing bullet-train transport, a high tech and expensive system.
Supporters of the stimulus claim that America's infrastructure system is rotting; a bold vision would not be to repair it, but to construct a new one entirely.
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Obama said he would name a team of managers to ensure that billions of dollars slated for infrastructure projects would be spent wisely.
"The American people are watching. They need this plan to work," Obama said at a gathering at the White House with dozens of the nation's mayors.
"And they expect to see the money they worked so hard to earn spent in its intended purpose without waste, inefficiency, or fraud."
--
With this announcement, Mr Obama has answered the Roman quip "who watches the watchers?" Free Exchange proposes a better question: who watches those who watch the watchers?
James Buchanan, founder of the Public Choice school of economic thought, believed that politics is run as a business. Politicians and bureaucrats act in their self-interest to accrue votes, much as businessman work to maximize their profits.
Fraud is easy to identify, wast and efficiency less so. With the definition of waste and efficiency left open to interpretation, Mr Obama's watchers will have to supply their own. It is at this point that Mr Buchanan jumps up and down frantically, waving his hands. Is building a road that doesn't serve anyone but create jobs "wasteful"? Or is a project that uses federal money to fund scientific exploration inefficient? Politics, not economics, plays the biggest role in this watcher committee.
Free Exchange proposes a project that ought to be funded: fast transport within each state connecting major towns with minor cities and minor cities with major cities; an intrastate subway system of sorts. A project like this not only creates jobs but creates a quick, cheap, alternative to automobiles; your correspondent is proposing bullet-train transport, a high tech and expensive system.
Supporters of the stimulus claim that America's infrastructure system is rotting; a bold vision would not be to repair it, but to construct a new one entirely.
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Chris MacDonald
Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
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