Trump's Carrier Victory Is the Economy's Loss

Donald Trump has scored a political victory by persuading Carrier Corp., a maker of air-conditioning and heating equipment, to keep about 1,000 jobs in the U.S. For that he deserves congratulations -- and a warning not to do this kind of thing again.

There is a long (if not always honorable) tradition of mayors, governors and even presidents pleading with or browbeating corporate executives for one reason or another. But using the power of the presidency to micromanage companies is an awful idea. The free market works in part because it relies on millions of individual enterprises to decide how best to employ their resources. The government's role is to protect their right to do so, and to intervene only in those cases where the market fails -- when misaligned incentives lead to environmental damage, for example, or financial instability.