Things You Won't See on Either Platform...

But probably should. If I were Tsar  running for President, some policies I'd advocate.

1. Re-finance the Federal debt to greatly extend its maturity. This would mean higher interest payments in the immeidate aftermath, but would mean we could lock in extremely low rates for decades, even after interest rates return to "normal." We could save hundreds of billions without changing/doing a thing.

2. Expand free trade and lower/ eliminate tariffs across the board. I was struck in the debate tonight when Obama said "we prevented China from exporting us cheap tires." I ran over two nails in one week and paid out the $%&# for two new tires. Obama directly lowered my real income with that tariff. Tariffs are taxes on American consumers, not foreign producers. Run for Premier of China if you want to get tough on the Chinese.

3. Eliminate farm subsidies. We pay billions of dollars a year in direct payments to agri-business so that they will produce less food. That's right, we collect a round of taxes literally for the privledge of constraining food output and raising prices. That's the intent not just the consequence of the policy. And when food (shock) is expensive, we collect another round of taxes (with the associated dead weight loss) to give people food stamps to buy the food we paid to make more expensive. Lets stop paying taxes to reduce our real incomes.

4. I've saved my favorite and most oft repeated mania policy for last. Yes, change the Federal Reserve Board's mandate from a dual mandate of price stability and low unemployment to a single mandate of a nominal GDP growth rate target. For explanation, click on nearly any prior post.