Richard J Grant

Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, September 25, 2011 by Richard J. Grant While financial markets focus on the latest version of “Operation Twist” in which the Federal Reserve attempts to “twist” the yield curve by reducing long-term interest rates relative to short-term rates, there is another kind of twist going on between businesses that are owned or favored by the government and those that are private. One group is subsidized or protected while the other is taxed or harassed. The U.S. Postal Service is in serious financial trouble. Like any spoiled child of government, it just can't get the hang of acting like a real business. Despite its privileged position, it faces the prospect of cutting service and very likely defaulting on obligations promised to employees. Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the power “To establish Post Offices and post Roads;” but it does not give it the obligation to do so. Also, there does not appear to be any command in the Constitution t...

Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, September 18, 2011 by Richard J. Grant When you wake up on the road to Hell, it matters which way you choose to walk. The Obama administration never ceases to remind us that it was their predecessor that dropped us off on that road. But at some point, the not-so-new president needs to take notice of which way he is leading us. Whatever starting point we might have wished for, as my old professor James Buchanan would say, “We start from here,” and not from someplace else. Call it our “inheritance.” But that's where we started, so get over it. If everything had been wonderful in the year 2008, then candidate Obama probably would not have stood a chance of becoming president. As it turned out, many years of copious and perverse regulation, unnecessary and excessive government spending, and an unnatural interest-rate policy all began to unwind in a perfect financial storm. Now, after two and a half years in power, the Obama administration is feelin...

Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, September 11, 2011 by Richard J. Grant Ten years ago today, I happened to be living in the Middle East. It was early evening, the end of the workday, when I arrived home to see the television on with the image of one of the twin towers burning. When the second plane hit, we knew that a bigger story was unfolding. The more we learned, the more we had to question the reality of our surroundings. But it was to our surroundings and the events in them that each of us had to react. In some places more than others, we could be reminded of Robert Browning's words, “For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave.” Watching from 6900 miles away gave an odd sense of safety despite being closer to what might well have been the source of the problem. What soon became apparent, in a land where appearances are always deceiving, was the difference in deeper sentiment. But strength is always respected, especially when applied wisely. Many shared the thought t...

Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, September 4, 2011 by Richard J. Grant It is often said that “a little bit of knowledge is dangerous.” An excellent illustrator of that statement is the U.S. Department of Justice, particularly its Antitrust Division. Last week, the Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the acquisition of T-Mobile USA by the much larger AT&T. According to its own press release, the department said that “the proposed $39 billion transaction would substantially lessen competition for mobile wireless telecommunications services across the United States, resulting in higher prices, poorer quality services, fewer choices and fewer innovative products for the millions of American consumers who rely on mobile wireless services in their everyday lives.” In this, the Department of Justice (DOJ) claims for itself not only the knowledge of good and evil but also the knowledge to manage entire industries, if not the entire economy. Were...