Bad economic arguments often come with a “tell” – a hand-waving catchphrase, inserted in place of reason or evidence as a means of coaxing agreement. Appeals for industrial subsidies are notorious for this.
For a long time the vogue phrase was “value-added.” Asked why a company’s fate should not be decided in the usual way – by its ability to sell a product to willing consumers or to raise capital from willing investors, rather than by its ability to lobby governments – the industrial strategy advocate had only to mumble something about the critical need to “move up the value-added ladder” to sweep away all objections.
SNC, McKinsey and now VW. Justin’s LPC seems to like doing business with corporate criminals.
