Fred Foldvary wrote:
>
> If, as I think is evident, lax accounting rules contributed siginficantly to
> the currrent financial scandals and stock-market decline, then it must be, if
> the median-voter hypothesis is correct, that the median voter favored such
> legal larceny as not requiting options to be expensed or not clearly stating
> that auditing firms also do consulting with the same firm. Since such
> legalized deception inevitably leads to this kind of grand larceny, the
> median voter must now be very happy that he got his wish.
There is a difference between favoring policies and favoring outcomes,
Fred. Two years ago did the median voter want more accounting
regulations? He probably passed the whole year without even remembering
the existence of accounting regulations! The median voter thus favored
the status quo by default. Now that a supermajority wants more
regulations, they will happen. Of course, once again there is little
reason to think outcomes will improve. But the median voter will get
the new policies they want.
--
Prof. Bryan Caplan
Department of Economics George Mason University
http://www.bcaplan.com [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"He wrote a letter, but did not post it because he felt that no one
would have understood what he wanted to say, and besides it was not
necessary that anyone but himself should understand it."
Leo Tolstoy, *The Cossacks*
