Letters
Letters Post Hoc Knock In regard to the statements by Charles Peters about inflation ("Tilting at Windmills," March), I would have to agree that the increase in the world price of...
...T. by Gregg Easterbrook is just the kind of satire we need...
...The Fed's monetary prudence has shown that there is at least one entity in Washington willing to exert some discipline...
...1 flunked the test...
...However, such potentially salutary effects immediately bump into unwholesome impacts when the general Peters' principle is applied to the Federal Reserve Board...
...well we don't want that...
...DOUG GARR New York, New York Overworked and Underappreciated What is wrong with pay and pensions of the military costing the government $60 billion...
...I disagree...
...Even more significantly, the country would be nowhere near facing the painful economic transitions that we had forestalled all too long...
...You weren't willing to do it, even 20...
...REDDING Rosemead, California...
...Most men are, and most men would like to find out more about them...
...The roots are psychological...
...Peters' March "Tilting" column he took what I consider a misdirected thrust at the independence of the Federal Reserve Board...
...D.A.W...
...SHELA C. TURPIN Washington, D.C...
...R. CLARKE Fairfax, Virginia Your comments on the military seem to be totally unfair and inappropriate...
...I'll continue to drive my '73 Toyota till it collapses, and then I'll buy another because it's cheaper and better made than the K-car or Omni or whatever...
...You takeaway the retirement and see how many people you keep-on active duty for how long...
...From reading some of your previous comments, you appeared to be somewhat supportive of our military personnel...
...I also had to run the Ship's Post Office for Ship's Company, plus embarked Marines and the Seabee Detachment...
...and of course he didn't want to get found out, liars usually don't...
...Who is going to loan money at four percent when the inflation rate is ten percent...
...Interest rates are determined by the supply of loanable funds as well as the demand for them...
...Fortunately most married men are more honest and regard their marriage vows more seriously than Jumpin' Jack Flash did...
...WILLIAM C. BRADSHAW Oakland, California Jumpin' Jack Flash After considering your inept apologia for John Kennedy's womanizing, I suggest the following definition for a neoliberal: someone who's got one foot in his mouth and the other up his past...
...singular in being attracted to mysterious women...
...The Fed has tenaciously sought low money growth in order to reduce the fuel of inflation...
...If I don't go they'll louse up retirement benefits I already have and which they want to take away unless already retired...
...The tides have turned...
...That metaphor was used to characterize the congressional greed and opportunism that culminated in last year's tax bill...
...If you propose that military personnel get overtime—and compensation for being away from their families for months or years—then perhaps a 20-year stint could be considered...
...right...
...They are the glue that keeps the military together...
...Please cancel my subscription...
...No, I didn't get any overtime—nor did I receive any "comp time" (that is, time off for time worked...
...Also, part of the reason interest rates were only around four percent in the 1950s and early 60s is the very fact that the inflation rate was nearly zero...
...The D.C.A...
...For example, can anyone explain why U.S...
...auto workers are terrified for their jobs with the advent of industrial robots while the Japanese have embraced them with enthusiasm (more robots in Japanese factories than in any other country...
...M.J...
...The cuts threatened this year may "force" me to choose retirement...
...You seem to be playing the same game as many congressional types: suggesting that working for a defense contractor upon retirement means that retirees will engage in dishonest business practices...
...Working 12 to 18 hours a day was not that unusual...
...Had that same greed and opportunism been unleashed full force upon the Federal Reserve, we might now have lower interest rates but we would almost certainly have higher inflation...
...ANDERSEN Santa Ana, California Loving Us and Leaving Us I am a new subscriber to your magazine and I want to express my appreciation of the fine articles in it...
...When you refer to 20 years of service, let's not forget that such service, in the majority of cases, isn't predicated on a basic 40-hour week...
...and put up with the mickey mouse for 20 years...but we won't do it or put up with it for 30 or 40 years like you want...
...We want it where we can see a decent end to it and a pay-off at 20...
...Yes, I worked behind a desk, but the deck force didn't—nor did the men in the engine rooms...
...In the April issue I thought the articles on how to cut the defense budget should be read by all Americans...
...Lots of us always say we'll sit in the boiler rooms, or the guard shacks, etc...
...However, it was very much the Federal Reserve's policy of keeping interest rates low during this period, which meant expanding the money supply at a faster rate, that reinforced the initial round of price increases caused by the increased price of oil and exacerbated the situation...
...I strongly believe that the majority of military retirees conduct themselves in an honorable fashion when working for a defense contractor...
...used more oil in total amounts is akin to saying an elephant will fatten faster than a mouse if it is fed twice as much as that mouse...
...Theory R Re your April "Tilting" column and your comments on Japanese technology: The "problem" goes deeper than Japanese-American trade talks, Ouichi's Theory Z of Japanese management superiority, and Japanese employment security...
...It has consistently opposed policies that serve to assure huge future deficits and keep interest rates high in anticipation of inflation's reacceleration...
...Military retirements are not absurd...
...harder than Japan or Europe because the U.S...
...In the midst of the current economic disarray, to advise the removal of one of the country's few defenses against the hogs may be to urge a hasty slippage into the pig's pen...
...Perhaps you will consider publishing my rebuttal— because I think that you were too general in your comments—and most assuredly unfair...
...PHIL MAGGITTI Unionville, Pennsylvania The Draft is Daft In your April issue you, the editors, sanction the revival of the draft as a method of reducing "the chances of reckless military adventurism abroad...
...Maybe former congressmen are immune to such immoral behavior...
...DANIEL P. SCHWALLIE Iowa City, •owa In Mr...
...In terms of politicizing monetary policy, has Peters so quickly forgotten David Stockman's "The hogs were really feeding...
...I am sure that it does—but certainly not of the magnitude that you suggest...
...He wasn't a Stan, he was a liar...
...A government is much more likely to be truculent if it has the power to compel its citizens to accept their government's foreign policy...
...Letters Post Hoc Knock In regard to the statements by Charles Peters about inflation ("Tilting at Windmills," March), I would have to agree that the increase in the world price of oil attributable to OPEC made a significant contribution to the increasing inflation of the 1970s...
...How many years of family separations, of unpaid overtime, of moves where we cannot buy a home, of losing money on moves, etc...
...There's no way to excuse Kennedy's behavior on the grounds that he was a "Stan" who had a "need not to be found out...
...The old joke was that "Made in Japan" meant it fell apart...
...Nor was the late J.K...
...After reading several articles from the magazine, I find that "innovation and freshness" are lacking from the content...
...Beware the post hoc, ergo proptor hoc fallacy in attempting simple explanations of complex events...
...Sure weare capable of performing for many years, but we refuse to .do it more than 20 with all the military mickey mouse one must endure...
...Yet you turn around and regard their retirement policies as being .. the most absurd of all the government's wasteful practices...
...Furthermore, my impression from reading The Washington Monthly is that the publication is nothing more than a medium from which the liberal faction can preach contemptuous policies...
...On other occasions Peters has argued cogently for the application of electoral accountability to the civil service...
...His statement that the increased price of OPEC oil hit the U.S...
...When I was on one LST in particular, I stood watches in Combat Information Center for eight hours a day—then had to put in about six or so hours in Ship's Office...
...They leave and it costs more in the end...
...How many people are willing to do it 30 or 40...
...Your castigation of the military gives them a black eye—which isn't warranted...
...ESTHER BURNS Spokane, Washington It was my understanding that The Washington Monthly provided unbiased views on contemporary politics...
...The record shows what happens when you underpay or mess up benefits for the military...
...You'd Like us to do it till we drop dead at 65...
...I personally take offense at your references to "premature retirement" as being a "major cause of corruption in the military...
...Such actions have made important contributions to a climate where Congress has finally begun to face its own responsibility for our current economic problems...
...Does this occur...
...You didn't serve 20 years did you...
...Almost none...
Vol. 14 • June 1982 • No. 4
