National economies are pretty tough to control. Need proof? Check these fellers out: Despite the fact that they dictated nearly every aspect of commerce, they still managed (okay, with a little help from their friends) to run their country into the ground.
To be fair–you know, like objective and shit–our system isn’t all that much better: Like, sure, private citizens can sell whatever they’d like, set the price, sit back and watch the dollars flow in–but when stuff goes all wrong, there’s not much that the government can do about it. Still, sometimes they try. And then the duders who seem most interested in preserving the system like to get all worked up about what they no doubt see as unwanted encroachment.
Anyway.
We here at Um brought you the above short course in economics not to embarrass ourselves (and our knowledge of that subject) but to provide you all with a bit of context for the following: According to this piece from the Guardian, the U.S. will soon start demanding that travelers entering the country without visas “register online with US authorities at least three days before leaving to visit America.”
Really Michael Chertoff? You’re going to announce that the United States (whose economy may already be in the crapper) is going to make it harder for foreign nationals to bring their awesome Euros and engage in a real, viable version of economic stimulus to our shores? Really?
