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Entry: Faith-Based Economy Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/faith_based_economy#20690 Post contents: Dear Joe Populist: How dare you call me a Libertarian! Actually I'm part paleocon and part social democrat. Exactly where the border is has yet to be determined. My own idea of appropriate governmental regulation of business is very nicely expressed in Averill Harriman's memoirs. When he was a lad at Groton he was on the debate team, and they were going to debate whether the Interstate Commerce Commission was a good thing. So Averill wrote his father, Edward H. Harriman to learn his thoughts. You may recall that EHH controlled the Union and Southern Pacific Railroads and was a major influence in Illinois Central and various others. President Theodore Roosevelt had confided to the American public via the press that EHH was a malefactor of great wealth and an undesirable citizen. So his opinion is of some interest. The malefactor himself advised his son that there should be an Interstate Commerce Commission, and that in authority and prestige it should be second only to the US Supreme Court. The malefactor's objection to the Commission as it then stood was that the Commissioners appointed by President Roosevelt had the dismaying habit of announcing their decision of a case before having been bothered to hear it. Edward H. Harriman was a very odd sort of robber baron. We could use several of his sort today. Sent at: 2008 07 04