SEVENTEEN RESOLUTIONS TEAM TRUMP WILL LIKELY BREAK.

Reason's Ryan Bourne offers "Seventeen Ways Politicians Can Make Things Cheaper, Starting With Food, Health Care, and Appliances."  I'll simply list them and suggest you read the article for the elaborations thereon.

1.  End Sugar Quotas.
2.  End Tariffs on Food.
3.  Expand Agricultural Immigration Visas.
4.  Expand the Scope of Independent Health Care Practices.
5.  Allow More Over-the-Counter Medicines.
6.  Recognize Foreign Drug Approvals.
7.  Scrap the Tariffs.  (The extension beyond appliances is straightforward.)
8.  Relax Licensing Requirements for Repairmen.
9.  Release Land for Building.
10.  Upzone.
11.  More By-Right Permits.
12.  Approve More Pipelines, More Quickly.
13.  End Tariffs on Goods Needed for Electrical Grids.
14.  Repeal the Jones Act.
15.  End the 'Chicken Tax'.
16.  Allow Direct Sales of Motor Vehicles.
17. End or Ease Buy American Rules.

I find myself in the position of Omar Sharif's Dr. Zhivago, agreeing with most of that list, if for reasons that are subtle.  I am old enough to remember how European agencies approved a sedative called thalidomide rather quickly whilst staff in the Food and Drug Administration asked for more evidence of that drug causing birth defects when administered to pregnant women.  Apparently that formula has use as a cancer treatment.  I also fear that Mr Bourne is insufficiently familiar with soldering irons and wrenches.  "Easing burdensome licensing for routine HVAC tasks and relaxing it for basic plumbing, in favor of simple registration and insurance requirements, would increase competition, shorten wait times, and push down the cost of keeping the kit in your home running."  The stories I have heard over the years from skilled tradesmen about the do-it-yourself stuff they've sometimes had to fix!

That noted, Mr Bourne is correct in diagnosing many of our "affordability" crises as failed attempts to manage crisis that somehow spill over into continuing the crisis, and the intrusion of Our Political Masters.

A serious affordability agenda would take aim at child care, clothing, and dozens of other essentials. Even in the areas covered here, there's more that could be done. The guiding principle is clear: Trade liberalization and deregulation can unleash supply, expand consumer choice, and improve affordability—sometimes through lower prices, sometimes by making room for cheaper, lower-frills options. Even when prices don't drop much, greater efficiency boosts wages.

In the long run, what people care about is how far their money goes. This requires economic growth. But after an inflation shock has jacked up prices, consumers aren't in the mood to wait. Officials should respond by letting markets work, not by stumbling into price controls and costly subsidies.

And maybe next time, Washington could try not overstimulating the economy through reckless monetary and fiscal policy in the first place.

But, but, but, I can hear the advocates for Government that Does Something scolding all and sundry about how Something Had Gone Wrong and There Was A Problem and Those State Actions were Intended To Solve Problems.

Let's open the new year with another reminder that voters returned Donald Trump and a Republican majority to Washington, known faults and follies all, because the most recent attempts to have a Government Doing Something brought us fiscal incontinence and a debacle in Afghanistan and corona tyranny and dangerous cities and personnel policies where competence was second or third to identity or ideological conformity.