EMPOWERMENT ZONING

Bremer brings Reaganomics to Iraq (Bret Stephens Jun. 22, 2003, Jerusalem Post)

Ambassador Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator in Iraq, spoke Sunday at the extraordinary meeting of the World Economic Forum, laying bare an agenda that stressed economic over political reform. [...]

The bulk of Bremer's 20 minute address...was devoted to economics. He talked in detail about the need in Iraq for new commercial codes, a simplified regulatory regime, a new antitrust authority, reform of the financial sector, higher standards of corporate governance, lower taxes, and"best practices in business ethics." [...]

The economics of reconstruction were evidently dear to the ambassador, who last worked in the State Department during the Reagan administration. "For the last 14 years I have been in business," he said. "We will succeed in transforming Iraq from a dead-end for business...into a country that is both free and economically prosperous."

The nations of the emerging democratic Middle East have a potentially huge advantage over the West, in that they could avoid the sclerotic welfare states, cumbersome taxes and regulations, and other accretions which are dragging us down. The strength of such institutions as family, mosque, and tribe--all of which offer private alternatives to government--would be particularly helpful in this regard. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 22, 2003 7:27 PM