Article: Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Minn., Real World Economics Column.

By Edward Lotterman, Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Minn. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jun. 24--News about subsidies for airlines and the U.S. cotton industry illustrate how addictive unsustainable or indefensible flows of money turn out to be.

Once a company, group or economic sector becomes used to above-market income of some type, stopping the flow is traumatic. This is particularly true when such income is incorporated into the price of some fixed resource.

None of this is new. David Ricardo, the greatest economist of all time in my opinion, spelled out the phenomenon two centuries ago. Even so, the lesson apparently must be learned ...

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