O problema

das agendas económicas governamentais que envolvam a promoção das actividades to tipo 'A' em detrimento das do tipo 'B', com o inevitável resultado de defender os empresários 'X' e não os 'Y', é insolúvel. É por isso que há muito defendo a inutilidade e mesmo a perversidade da existência de um ministério da Economia. Os governos nada sabem sobre o assunto sendo que o melhor que podem fazer é não dificultar a vida aos empreendedores. É sobre este problema, independente do quadrante político que ocupa o governo, que versa este artigo de Timothy P. Carney de que sublinho os seguintes excertos:

«The problem is not that Obama's administration is bad at picking investments. Nor is Obama, among politicians, corrupt or unusually given to cronyism. The problem is that Obama's stated agenda, which involves giving government a central role in the private sector, inevitably creates waste, gives benefits to the well-connected, and opens the door for cronyism and corruption.

Obama promised to be the scourge of the lobbyists and the antidote to special-interest dominance in Washington, but he also promised an activist government role in the economy. The two are nearly mutually exclusive.

Some Republicans, to their credit, are driving this idea home. Newt Gingrich in last week's debate pointed out the incompatibility of Obama's call to close tax loopholes and his steady push for "green energy" tax subsidies. House Speaker John Boehner criticized Obama's Big Government policies for creating "a government that favors crony capitalism and businesses deemed 'too big to fail' over the small banks and small businesses that make our economy go."

In the House hearing on Solyndra, though, Republicans alternated between the typical congressman-bullying-a-witness schtick, and trying to paint Obama's DOE as unusually inept. The more accurate and politically relevant point is that government agencies simply aren't well-equipped to be economic players, and that political decisions will always drive government investments, whether the president is named Bush, Obama, Perry or Romney.»