Re: The economy - a new era?

["David B. Shemano" <dshemano@xxxxxxxxxx>]

If airline deregulation was not a success, in your view, what do you propose to reregulate?  Do you propose to go back to the pre-1978 era, where "industry capture" was an art form and the CAB actively prevented new entrants and price competition in the name of the public interest?  Or do you propose nationalization and a single airline owned by the federal government?

David Shemano



--- Original Message---
 To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>
 Sent:  2/10/2004  1:12PM
 Subject: Re: [PEN-L] The economy - a new era?

>> Eugene Coyle wrote:
>>
>> >Alfred Kahn has a new book out -- I'm told, haven't seen it.  He's
>> >still boasting about the success of airline deregulation.
>>
>> Long ago - 10, 12 years - I did a piece on the general experience of
>> dereg. That's when I discovered that the airfares subindex of the CPI
>> had been increasing far faster than  the overall CPI, mainly because
>> of quality declines (e.g., tighter purchase restrictions, more
>> stops). Kahn had been quoting the real fare per seat mile measure,
>> which had been going down (though no more quickly than it did
>> pre-dereg). But when I asked him to comment on the behavior of the
>> CPI component, he refused to believe it.
>>
>> Doug
>>
>>