Unintended Consequences 

Unintended Consequences

Two neat examples.

In the Globe and Mail, a discussion of the new "Green Belt" policy of the Ontario government. Eric Reguly says the government's announcement that big swatches of land close to Toronto are "frozen" will have two immediate effects: increasing the price of land already approved for development, which just became more scarce; and decreasing the price of farmland that is now frozen, but was previously subject to lively bidding by developers. The twist is: developers will still be confident of winning a lot of battles for subdivisions, so far unapproved, some day, so they will buy that cheap farmland, and later reap huge profits from it. The government isn't so much preserving anything as it is enriching developers.

Kaus says the talk about simplifying the tax code in the U.S. will generate huge campaign donations to Congressmen running in 2006, from business people worried about losing their deductions.

Er, maybe this one isn't unintentional: it is another reason why the Republican Congress will be extremely compliant for Bush.