Imagine if the government decided to increase the number of minutes in an hour from 60 to 70.
You can hear policymakers congratulating themselves:
"People will work longer at the same pay. This will be a boon to productivity!"
Or if Washington increased the number of inches in a foot from 12 to 15:
"Home buyers will thus get more house for the same price and that will stimulate home buying!"
It's no more foolish than what we and other countries routinely do with our currencies.
Steve Forbes for forbes.com 4/21/2010