Janet Daley recently wrote an article in the UK Telegraph that presented her opinion on President Obama and Prime Minister Brown’s view that within the current economic crises lies an opportunity.  The article appears here.  My take on Janet’s argument is basically this: Minister Brown (the Al Gore of British politics, minus the US Supreme Court and elections) and President Obama are using the current economic malaise to institute a leftish power grab, which is fool hearted and is not addressing the crises at hand.

She claims that the economic crisis was enabled, “as much by the Left-liberal determination to spread prosperity through easy credit to the poor, as by the greed of bankers.”  This is an entirely political claim that speaks to no more than the margins of the origins. [Read more →]

Obama promises (around minute 5) to protect Social Security, “today, tomorrow and forever.”  Perhaps he was thinking of the Elvis Presley song.  Obama’s love for Social Security aside, what does he plan to do to keep his loved one from a retirement of penury and destitution?  His stance is similar to McCain’s,

We… have an obligation to protect Social Security and ensure that it’s a safety net the American people can count on today, tomorrow and forever. Social Security is the cornerstone of the social compact in this country… [Read more →]

The third rail of American politics is up next in our look at the policies of Senators McCain and Obama.  In short, social security is a government mandated transfer of money from today’s workers to today’s retirees.  The program began during the Great Depression with the passage of the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935.  There is a very long and detailed, but brief, history on the Social Security Administration’s website which includes such gems as the fact that olive oil was economic security to the ancient Greeks.  [Read more →]

Now we turn to Obama’s stance on free trade.  Obama happens to fit very nicely into our taxonomy of views on trade.  He falls into the category of people that recognizes the benefits of free trade but is wary of the process by which trade achieves its ends.  Obama is a member of the CMOS wing and the CMAT wing of free-traders.  A proponent of cave mercatem and meeting our standards and assisted trade as described in an earlier post.  Obama’s believes that a myriad of standards should be prerequisites to existing and future trade pacts.  He labels his brand of free-trade as “fair-trade.”  [Read more →]

Before we can compare McCain and Obama’s positions on trade, we have to give some background on the trade debate.  There are a whole slew of positions that people take on trade issues.  These stances arise from differing viewpoints on the effect that trade has on everything from growth, wages, the environment, labor standards and unemployment rates.  Let’s lay it all out there.

There are several kinds of “free-traders” in the political world. [Read more →]

Since we’re about reasoned political analysis here, it is fitting that we begin a series of posts on the 2008 presidential election between Senators McCain and Obama.  We intend to cover the policies proposed by both Senators.  This will include the candidates policies on taxes, trade, energy, health care, education (something near and dear to our hearts, since we’ve been in school so long!), and possibly others.  We’ll try to focus on the economic policies, but that doesn’t mean we’ll leave out the softer issues like gun control, gay marriage, abortion, civil liberties.  Again we welcome reader participation, so if you think one of us is off, by all means, let us know!  We look forward to all the coming discussion.  - 3EcoNBloG