Libertarian Fears

This (Why I'm Concerned About an Obama Victory) seems about right.
"The combination of united government and a major economic crisis is likely to lead to a great expansion of government, just as it did on several previous occasions such as the 1930s.
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I understand, of course, that none of this is a problem for those who want a major expansion of government power or are at least indifferent to it. But I do think it should be of concern to those libertarians or small government conservatives who welcome an Obama victory. It should also matter to moderates and liberals who recognize that massive expansions of government power in a time of crisis provide major opportunities for abuses of power and interest group power grabs at the expense of the general public - both of which happened on a large scale during the Great Depression."

Voting this time around as one who doesn't care about left (conservative) versus right (progessive), but who does care about wanting less (Libertarian) rather than more (can't think of a non-perjorative name for this one) government, what I can't be happy with is having all the power in one party that believes in increasing the scope of government.

Though correlation is not causation, one possible partial explanation for what happened to the stock market this week is that investors have just figured out the implications of putting people who think like FDR in complete filibuster-proof control of our Federal government.

I don't fear the word "depression" as it applies to Economics. It's just a technical term for three or more consecutive quarters of economic downturn. Our nation had lots of them throughout the 1800s, and we're way past due for another.

What I do fear is the consequences of putting the same bunch that got us into our current mess in filibuster-proof charge of finding a solution, when most of them have never taken even an introductory course in Economics.

What made the Great Depression a decade-long disaster, rather than just another speed bump on the way to prosperity, was all the counter-productive things done by political leaders in the name of solving the problem.

John F. Kennedy was the first American president to have taken a course in Economics, and we all benefited from that as he led skillfully during the recession of 1962. Sadly, neither of this year's candidates has taken such a class, and that may have unfortunate and lasting consequences for us all, no matter which is elected in November.