We learned from the mortgage meltdown (or at least I hope we did) that government interference in free markets has (negative) unintended consequences. Well, I guess not all of us have learned.
John Hinderaker at Power Line reported yesterday that Democrats on the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection will hold a hearing next week on the proposed regulation of the gold industry.
The article states:
"Just as the government is trying to prevent people from investing in anything other than T-Bills by raising taxes on taxable interest and dividends to confiscatory levels, it's also trying to prevent you from parking your wealth in assets, like gold, that compete with the paper dollars issued by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury. A press release from Rep. Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York, not yet (as of this instant) posted on Mr. Weiner's Web site, announces that a September 23 hearing of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection (a subcommittee of Rep. Henry Waxman's Commerce Committee) will focus on "legislation that would regulate gold-selling companies, an industry who's [sic] relentless advertising is now staple of cable television.""
There are two obvious aspects of this--one, T-Bills are not selling--gold is, and two, most of the gold advertising is done on conservative news or talk radio shows. Gold is marketed as a world-wide commodity, how in the world does Congress think they can regulate it? This is nothing more than a shot across the bow at conservative news outlets and talk radio. Somehow, I don't think Fox News or talk radio will be intimidated. This is also an attempt to turn the market on to T-Bills. As the national debt increases, I don't see that working either.
It will be interesting to watch the progress of these hearings.
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