Regulatory Life & Death In America

Says Niall Ferguson:

Unlike Frenchmen, he continued, who instinctively looked to the state to provide economic and social order, Americans relied on their own efforts. "In the United States, they associate for the goals of public security, of commerce and industry, of morality and religion. There is nothing the human will despairs of attaining by the free action of the collective power of individuals."

Compare this with Hong Kong, where everyone seems to belong to a dozen orgs, that is to say, exercises in self-government.

One of the weirdest developments is that wine in USA follows French (!?) regulation and we end up with French results...  To wit:

1. A winery in USA, for the most part, is a consumer item, not a business.  "I have a waterfront home, a Porsche, kid at Stanford, a winery, etc."

2. The wine business is about tax credits and subsidies.  Take those away and probably 90% of the  wineries in the USA disappear.

3. All advertising is about aspirations, and the winery itself is the experience to be advertised.  About the only advertising for most wineries that matters is "Tasting Room, Next Exit."

4. What ads get produced are valentines to the winery owners.  "Look at us.  Aren't we special?"  Google wine ads and google and any other industry.  Every other industry shows an identifiable target market enjoying the product.  Rarely a wine ad.

5. All advertising benefit inures to the leader. Royal Crown advertises cola, people buy Coke, so we have small wineries throwing money away to grow the big ones.  They already get import taxes on the wine they sell against you zeroed out, might as well finish yourself off.

6.  So no advertising?  Correct.  Wine is an add-on sale, so it needs to be cross sold: marketed not advertised.  Your brand is the retailer or restaurant who features you.  But since USA adopted the French wine trade laws, we are not able to compete effectively world wide, let alone domestically.

But here come Detroit, with freedom re-emerging.



Maybe they will become a regulation-free zone.  It is good to watch, because the future of USA is being played out in Detroit.

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