"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message
...
On Apr 25, 12:48 am, "Ed Huntress" wrote:
...
I just watch out for the underlying principle. For most of my life,
copyright has been an important issue in my work. I just don't like the
idea
that people should get all of that work for free.

This time, I'll reverse myself on the issue for this particular set of
circumstances. It's not like a private, individual writer having his work
taken away.
...
Ed Huntress

I tossed this one out to see the reactions. I worked for MITRE, which
is structured as a private company doing public-interest consulting
funded by federal contracts, another approach to expert technical
assistance not subject to bureaucratic and political overhead.

My son works for one of those policy institutes, in health care. It works
mostly on government consulting contracts, with some foreign and private
contracts tossed in.


I took the governmentese writing classes, though I wrote only manuals
and circuit descriptions. The instructor mostly discussed the various
administrative models from the rule-based formalism of a bank to the
wild-west power struggles Harold Geneen encouraged at ITT.

We have never agreed on a single model for functions that combine
private and public interest. We range from phone-pole monopolies for
otherwise private utilities through complete government control
(NASA), and some like water works may flop back and forth. Fire
departments were once private companies. In the case of the NEC
volunteers create standards that become law, a de facto practical
compromise between private special interest and elected authority.

That's a dilemma that results from inherent conflicts between a democratic
government and private capitalism. We muddle through, but it's a
case-by-case thing.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_System
According to the Board of Governors, the Federal Reserve is
independent within government in that "its decisions do not have to be
ratified by the President or anyone else in the executive or
legislative branch of government." However, its authority is derived
from the U.S. Congress and is subject to congressional oversight.

jsw

The Federal Reserve is one of the most extreme cases. It depends entirely on
the ability of the decision-makers, and their integrity in the face of
political pressure.

So far it's worked amazingly well, but we are now living through some of the
consequences of ideological conflicts within the Fed. There is no way that I
can see to improve it. Having Congress control it would be an absolute
disaster -- as it was, before the Fed was created.

--
Rf Jjimytrdd