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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures." -- Daniel Webster
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Tuesday, August 03, 2010 :::
I think of high spending on lobbyists less as a problem in itself than as a symptom of a bigger problem. Passing huge new laws with many of the details left to the regulators creates a lot of uncertainty, which means some institutions hire lobbyists for self-defense and others identify opportunities for rent-seeking (of course, the distinction between the two is not always perfectly clear).
Putting severe restrictions on lobbyists, for example, would not make anything better; the problem is not that there are so many lobbyists being paid so much, the problem is that the people who hire them think it's worth paying them that much, and that they're often right.Labels: lobbying
::: posted by Steven at 1:07 PM
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