Monday, June 30, 2008

The Best Move John McCain Has Made...

...is to make Phil Gramm part of his advisory team. You can clearly see the influence Gramm is having on the economic positions of McCain.

The former senator is a first rate economist and a tough, tactical politician. For the take on Gramm as a tough, tactical politician, see these not necessarily flattering comments about him from the economist Murray Rothbard and from former Citibank chairman, Sandy Weill, here.

For a sense of Gramm as a brilliant economist, be sure to read an interview of Gramm by the senior economics writer for the WSJ editorial page, Stephen Moore, here.

Gramm on entrepreneurs versus do-gooders, from the interview:

When you help a company raise capital, to put its idea to work, and you create jobs, those jobs are the best housing program, education program, nutrition program, health program ever created. Look, if a man in one lifetime is responsible for creating 100 real jobs, permanent jobs, then he's done more than most do-gooders have ever achieved.

Gramm takes a swipe at Obama:

Why is America the richest country in the world?...It's not because our people are more brilliant; it's because we have a better free-market system. Why has Texas created 1.6 million jobs in the last 10 years whereas Michigan has lost 300,000 jobs and Ohio has lost 100,000 jobs? Because governance matters, taxes matter, regulation matters. Our opponents in this campaign are so dogmatic in their goal of having more government because they love the power it brings to them that they're willing to let it impose costs on the working people that they say they want to help. I am not.

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