In the rest of the country, they call this Indian Summer; here we call it, Earthquake Weather. We've had a few shakers lately, nothing to get excited about. I decided I had to write another installment of my election season essays, because neither candidate impressed me this week with their statements on the economy.
To be fair, nobody could have anticipated how bad this situation has gotten in the period of two weeks. Government intervention, even for "small government" Republicans, became the only option to avoid the specter of a global financial failure.
Macroeconomic theory needs a makeover, now every country's economy is tied into every other country's. The candidates cannot be faulted for being out of touch with how to manage an economy of the size and complexity of ours. In the middle of an election, they've had to think in their feet; instead, they sounded like they were thinking with their feet (in their mouths).
This is not a good partisan issue; to the extent it is, however, it favors the Democrats. The GOP has held the White House for 8 years and Congress for 12 of the last 14. Those who've read my posts know I do not favor large government bureaucracies or unnecessary regulation.
But I've never supported "deregulation," which is code for removing needed laws and regulations in order to let large companies gain access to new markets unfettered by any reasonable sense of restraint. This has been the GOP mantra since Gingrich took over Congress in 1994.
Now, we all are sharing the "benefits" of their approach.
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