[Dialogue] What the he** is going on?

[KroegerD@aol.com]

Published on Wednesday, December 21, 2005 by CommonDreams.org 
Business and the Rule of Law 
by Robert B. Reich 
American business should be deeply  concerned about the claims by the 
President to authority for whatever  action is necessary to secure the nation, even 
if that means stretching or  ignoring the law.  
>From its infancy, modern capitalism depended on liberty and  predictability, 
and business leaders fought for the rule of law. The idea  that a head of 
state must be bound by law emerged from the struggles of  the 17th and 18th 
centuries with monarchs who claimed to have divine right  to do as they pleased. A 
rising class of European merchants insisted that  rulers do only what they were 
authorized by law to do.  
These business leaders understood that economic liberties could not be  
separated from civil liberties. If a king or emperor could arrest or  detain or 
search or torture anyone for whatever reason, there was nothing  to stop him from 
taking private property, interfering in private  contracts, commandeering 
private resources.  
Now we have a President who asserts the power to spy on Americans  without 
the approval of a court, even though a law enacted more than a  quarter century 
ago prohibits this practice. He claims authority to  secretly monitor the 
actions of private groups advocating environmental  protection or peace. He and 
his administration assert the prerogative to  call any American an "enemy 
combatant" and keep him in jail without  counsel for as long as they wish.  
This is the same Administration that flouts international law by  detaining 
foreigners indefinitely, by holding some in secret prisons, and  by using 
torture as an instrument to gain information. It’s the same  Administration that 
pays off journalists here and abroad to write  favorable stories about it, also 
in defiance of law.  
The President says all this is justified because he is the nation’s  
Commander-in-Chief, responsible for guarding the nation’s security in a  time of war. 
But if the end of keeping Americans secure justifies all  means -- including a 
disregard of law -- then no one is secure.  
If civil liberties can be sacrificed at the whim of the president --  without 
deliberation by Congress, and absent the normal procedures  involved in 
making law -- economic liberties are equally at risk. How far  are we from the 
specter of no-bid government contracts to politically  well-connected suppliers 
who agree with the President’s assertions about  the war? Of selective 
prosecution of antitrust laws or health and safety  regulations, depending on support 
for the President’s war agenda? Of  pressure on the media to provide favorable 
coverage of the war, in return  for regulatory favors?  
When a president or a king is unaccountable to law, it’s impossible to  
predict where or how he will act in pursuit of his aims.  
The perils for American business reach beyond our shores. When America  is 
viewed less as a beacon of law and democracy than as a lawless bully,  the 
nation cannot claim world economic leadership. The so-called  Washington Consensus 
of the 1990s, embracing free trade, free capital  flows, and responsible 
fiscal policies, is unraveling. The Doha Round of  trade talks has practically 
ground to a halt. We’re getting nowhere on  international agreements over taxes 
and securities.  
Economic freedom and civil liberty -- the two are inseparable. And both  are 
threatened by unaccountable power that refuses to be confined by the  rule of 
law. As they did centuries ago when confronting monarchs who  claimed 
unbridled power to rule as they wished, business leaders must come  to the defense of 
liberty.  
Robert Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of  Public 
Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served  in three 
national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor  under President 
Bill Clinton. He has written ten books, including The Work  of Nations, which 
has been translated into 22 languages; the best-sellers  _The Future of Success 
_ 
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375725121/commondreams-20/ref=nosim) and _Locked in the Cabinet_ 
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375700617/commondreams-20/ref=nosim) , and his most recent book, Reason.  His 
articles have appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, New York  Times, 
Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Mr. Reich is co-founding  editor of The 
American Prospect magazine. His above commentary airs  tonite on NPR's 
"Marketplace."  
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