European Resource Bank Meeting – Day 1

Since 2004, Citizens Against Government Waste has been attending the European Resource Bank Meeting.  This is the annual meeting of free market think tanks and taxpayer groups in, yes, you guessed it, Europe.  This year’s meeting is being held in Tbilisi, Georgia.  Originally planned to be here because of the free market reforms pushed by the prime minister, events of late (the Russian invasion) have changed the focus to showing solidarity.

Since the first meeting in 2004, I have always been struck by the sameness of the problems in different countries.  As I travelled here, the US had just passed a $700 billion financial bailout plan.  As I arrived, I turned on the television to see that the United Kingdom and Germany have also proposed bailing out their troubled financial institutions.  The price tag for the UK bailout could exceed 70 billion pounds, potentially eclipsing 500 billion pounds.

This similiarity reminded me of other bad government ideas initiated by the US federal government, such as the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft.  It has also reminded me that there are more potential bad policies coming down the road such as Net Neutrality and the lack of respect/protection for intellectual property rights.

Day 1of the meeting is usually less policy driven and more of a reunion of like-minded friends.  Now comes the nitty gritty of the trying to figure out who to stop governments from raising taxes and wasting tax dollars.