REPORT FROM THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

One of the crosses which we federal officials bravely bear is the obligation to make the not infrequent "new directions" speech. A "new directions" speech is one in which some poor soul is asked to tax his imagination and to come up with something anything that is new about whatever profession or institution he happens to represent. You've heard a million of them, I'm sure. New directions in Congress. New directions in real estate taxation. New directions in double entry bookkeeping. New directions at the Bureau of the Mint. Almost invariably, these speeches are boring, because no amount of imagination and rhetoric can compensate for the fact that, at bottom, there isn't any new direction at all.