{
    "href": "/post/2009/05/13/economic-value-of-the-rule-of-law/",
    "relId": "2009/05/13/economic-value-of-the-rule-of-law",
    "title": "Economic Value of the Rule of Law",
    "author": "pmjones",
    "markup": "html",
    "tags": [
        {
            "href": "/tag/general/",
            "relId": "general",
            "title": "General",
            "author": null,
            "created": null,
            "updated": [],
            "markup": "markdown"
        }
    ],
    "created": "2009-05-13 15:00:53 UTC",
    "updated": [
        "2009-05-13 15:00:53 UTC"
    ],
    "html": "<blockquote>\n<p>Most people underestimate just how economically valuable the rule of law is.  <strong>A roughly stable investment environment that doesn't maximize social justice is undoubtedly better than an unpredictible one that tries to</strong>--just as the billions of poor people who live in states that have tried to exchange the former for the latter.  The winners were not the dispossessed.</p>\n<p>This can be exaggerated--markets have memories, but they don't last forever, and robust democracies can survive a fair amount of skullduggery at the margins.  But on balance, I doubt that deal maximized utility compared to an alternative where the government stayed out of it and Chrysler made whatever deal it could.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p><em>via <a href=\"http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/05/the_better_bankruptcy_bureau.php\">The Better Bankruptcy Bureau - Megan McArdle</a>.</em></p>\n<p>(Emphasis added.)</p>\n"
}