What Happened to Robert Crandall?

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2009/12/what-happened-to-robert-crandall

An article in today's New York Times quotes Robert Crandall, the former chairman of American Airlines, as saying, "The United States doesn't really have an integrated transportation plan...What is needed is some kind of overall plan, and it has to be done by the government." Here, by contrast, is Mr. Crandall in January 1998: "it is clear that our customers -- who tell us daily where to fly, when to fly, what kind of service to offer and what to charge -- are wiser than any government is likely to be. History has shown that the market is almost always wiser, and vastly more efficient, than even the most enlightened government. We'll be better off by far when governments everywhere discover that truth." Said Mr. Crandall back then, "Increasingly, almost anyone aggrieved by almost any aspect of life -- whether social or economic -- seems to feel that government should 'do something' about the presumed wrong...Governments, it seems to me, are all too willing to develop and implement poorly thought out and hastily adopted 'solutions' to problems which would be better left to the wisdom of free markets." The Times article doesn't note the apparent contradiction.

by Editor  |  Dec 29, 2009 at 10:23 am Related Topics:  Press receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list