EconoWeirdness

Exposing the madness wehind current economic thought

Monday, June 4, 2012

The feds are going to seize guitars from musicians

The US's bureaucrats at it again. For some reason, the US Fish and Wildlife Service sees it necessary to use American taxpayer dollars to focus on what they call a tariff law violation concerning wood. They are so determined to eradicate what they call illegal wood that they are even considering threatening this year's summer concerts. The target is the world renowned Gibson Guitars. And among some of the notable names of rock stars that might be affected: Sheryl Crow, Van Halen, and especially Ted Nugent are on the roster.

First, the Obama Administration has a history of harassing non-union companies. Second, Gibson's closest competitor, Martin Guitars, is operated by a major Democrat-supporter and uses wood from the same sources as Gibson. But Martin has never been harassed.

When this story first came on the news here, the President of Gibson in Nashville, TN flat out said that the union had been threatening them and harassing them and used their influence from campaign contributions in Washington DC to make this happen.