Comeuppance Comes to Iowa
“The opportunities which some States would have of rendering others tributary to them by commercial regulations would be impatiently submitted to by the tributary States.”-Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #7
Three days ago, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller sued a Connecticut company. The next day, news came that Iowa-based Principal Financial Group Inc. had been hit with a subpoena by Eliot Spitzer. Principal had been served a subpoena by Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal in January.
The AGs are playing the same economic wargames that undid the Articles of Conferation. If only we had some document, some sort of “NEW and IMPROVED Articles of Conferation” that allowed national government to regulate national commerce.
But this isn’t Heaven. It’s Iowa…and Connecticut…and New York…and forty-seven others.