Grading the Leading Presidential Candidates

In this interview for Newsmax TV, I was asked about the frontrunners for the GOP presidential race. As you can see, I bend over backwards to avoid being too mean to either Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich.

I do make a meaningless prediction that Paul Ryan or Marco Rubio would jump to the top of the polls if they entered the race (I think my prediction is correct, but there’s no chance of anyone entering the contest this late).

Last but not least, I briefly talk about the payroll tax fight and the prospects (or lack thereof) for real entitlement reform.

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New Video Punctures Myths about Great Depression, Exposes Damaging Impact of Statist Policies by Hoover and FDR

I’ve commented many times about the misguided big-government policies of both Hoover and FDR, so I can say with considerable admiration that this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity packs an amazing amount of solid info into about five minutes.

Perhaps the most surprising revelation in the video is that America suffered a harsh depression after World War I, with GDP falling by a staggering 24 percent.

But we don’t read much about that downturn in the history books, in large part because it ended so quickly.

The key question, though, is why did that depression end quickly while the Great Depression dragged on for a decade?

One big reason for the different results is that markets were largely left unmolested in the 1920s. This meant resources could be quickly redeployed, minimizing the downturn.

But this doesn’t mean the crowd in Washington was completely passive. They did do something to help the economy recover. As Ms. Fields explains in the video, President Harding, unlike Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt, slashed government spending.

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