Cato Daily Dispatch for October 16, 2003
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New Currency for IraqSenators Unite against Patriot Act
Bush Smallpox Plan Needs Booster
New Currency for Iraq
"Iraqis toting grocery bags, shoeboxes and backpacks stuffed with cash flocked to banks Wednesday to trade in bills with former president Saddam Hussein's face for new ones in a currency swap that is the cornerstone of the interim government's plans to rebuild the country's economy," The Washington Post reports.
"The occupation authority says it hopes to make Iraq's financial system -- until recently one of the most secretive and most controlled in the world -- into a showcase for capitalist ideals. L. Paul Bremer, the civil administrator of Iraq, said he believes that introducing a new dinar note will stabilize the value of the currency, which in turn will encourage savings, investment and entrepreneurship and help create what many Iraqis today want most: jobs."
However, in "Monetary Options for Postwar Iraq," Cato Senior Fellow Steve H. Hanke and Matt Sekerke of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics and the Study of Business Enterprise write: [T]he only serious alternatives for a successful monetary reform in Iraq are to institute a currency board or to dollarize officially. Either of those reforms could be accomplished quickly, in contrast to the development of a modern central bank, which would require an untold number of years to become operational and would face government interference at every turn."
They go on to say: "Either currency reform would help to establish confidence and stabilize Iraq's economy, paving the way for a timely U.S. exit. A quick stabilization, which can be achieved with dollarization or a currency board, is, therefore, of utmost importance."
Senators Unite against Patriot Act
"A bipartisan group of lawmakers and advocacy groups have formed a 'Coalition of Conscience' to roll back sections of the Patriot Act they say encroach on civil liberties," according to The Washington Times. "'This is an amazing coalition. Very seldom do these groups and these senators come together,' said Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat.
"Sen. Larry E. Craig, Idaho Republican, and Mr. Durbin--joined by representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and American Conservative Union, among others--yesterday introduced the Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act."
Timothy Lynch, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice and author of "Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Preserving Our Liberties While Fighting Terrorism," says, "The Patriot Act was designed to reduce privacy and increase security. It has succeeded in at least reducing privacy."
In "More Surveillance Equals Less Liberty," he writes: "Too many conservatives have brushed aside grievances about civil-liberties violations in the mistaken belief that President Bush's political opponents are simply trying to dress up a partisan attack in noble-sounding rhetoric about liberty, privacy and the Constitution. The opposite is true. President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft have given their political opponents a just cause--namely, resisting the growth of a surveillance state."
Bush Smallpox Plan Needs Booster
"Less than a year after President Bush announced a smallpox vaccination plan to protect Americans in the event of a terrorist attack, a fraction of the expected number of health workers have been immunized and the much ballyhooed program is dead in the water," reports USA Today. "Federal health officials say they're not ready to declare the program dead, but they readily acknowledge it's ailing."
In "Smallpox and Bioterrorism: Why the Plan to Protect the Nation Is Stalled and What to Do," William J. Bicknell and Kenneth D. Bloem write, "The Bush administration needs to revitalize our preparations for a smallpox bioterrorist event."
They argue that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention erroneously claim that, should an attack occur, the techniques used decades ago to eradicate smallpox will work well today. Bicknell is a former commissioner of public health in Massachusetts and professor of international health at Boston University School of Public Health. Bloem is an ex-CEO of Stanford University Hospital and Georgetown University Medical Center.
"Because the speed of post-event vaccination is directly dependent on the number of vaccinators willing to expose themselves to the risk of smallpox, the smaller the number of immunized vaccinators, the faster smallpox would spread across the country," they write. "Further, if neither health care workers nor the general population are immunized, our hospitals and medical care system will be at grave risk of being swamped and losing significant capacity after a smallpox attack. That is exactly what the president's plan was designed to prevent."
Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org