I’m worried less about a recession than inflation. I’m worried most about a recession, inflation AND a jolly round of trade wars, coupled with fragile banks, overcapacity, diminished consumer confidence and aggressive messianic collectivism. Something about that smells familiar. I love studying the thirties and forties, but not first hand.During this campaign season the ghosts of past presidents loom, as the annoying baby boomers re-fight Vietnam, stagflation, and the Reagan tax cuts (thankfully, not Roe v. Wade, at least not yet). We've heard candidates compared laudingly or disparagingly to every President going back to Eisenhower, while the current incumbent has been called a latter-day Truman by his supporters and Herbert Hoover by his detractors.
Interestingly, no one has claimed the mantle of the greatest 20th century president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Is it because he is bane to conservatives and liberals alike by presiding over history's largest expansion of government and the last total war of unimaginable brutality? Or is it for trivial reasons like how a polio victim doesn't look good in a telegenic age or how we don't need to be reminded about Democratic ex-Governors of New York?
FDR made it acceptable to look to the government to solve our problems. As institutions look increasingly unstable, you can be sure that many will call for the public sector to take control over more aspects of our lives. Their mantra will be: yes, government can. © 2008 Stephen Yuen
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