Usually, they will put central in front of it for full force. Central planning is the latest conservative epithet in the wake of President-elect Obama's bold and sweeping proposals for revitalizing the increasingly moribund American economy. Here's Robert Tracinski, the editor of The Intellectual Activist:

The real story of the bailout of the Detroit auto industry is not simply the waste of taxpayers' money on failing enterprises. Rather, the real news is Congress's apparent confidence that the way to revive Detroit is to impose central planning on the auto industry. This would be done by appointing a "car czar" empowered to "act as a kind of trustee with authority to bring together labor, management, creditors and parts suppliers to negotiate a restructuring plan. He or she also would be able to review any transaction or contract valued at more than $25 million."

The term "car czar" is not quite right. As a metaphorical description of the bailout, it evokes the right location--Russia--but the wrong era. "Car commissar" would be much more exact. Perhaps he will begin his work by issuing a five-year plan for the revival of the Big Three.

After all, it's Frei Marktwirtschaft Uber Alles. The free market will provide an answer. How bankrupt is this line of thinking? Not as much as it should be. The nation and the health of the American economy is being held hostage by recalcitrant elements of the Republican party who in pursuit of some perverse ideological point about "free markets" and "limited government" seem willing to let an industry that directly employs a quarter of a million Americans and indirectly contributes to perhaps another five million jobs collapse. It is as if they want the country to fail. The truth is they want government to fail but are they are willing to let country fail to achieve such.

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