Big Deal

Here's a Hillary Clinton speech on "Solutions for the American Economy" from January. I assume what she will say in Fort Wayne won't be substantially different. Here she explains the genesis of her "bold" approach:

Think about President Franklin Roosevelt. Faced with a Depression, grave threats to America's freedom, he responded with bold solutions. Yes, they were sometimes controversial, but we rose from economic chaos and despair and at the time he died we were months away from winning a World War. He didn't paint a rosy scenario. He didn't ignore the tough challenges. He urged us to confront them. "We have a great many problems ahead of us," he said. "And we must approach them with realism and courage." He believed we could tackle our greatest challenges, and I believe exactly the same. We have to overcome the fear and fatalism that President Bush has used to divide us and set us against one another.

A good case can be made -- indeed, has been made by many economists -- that Roosevelt's New Deal not only didn't "bring us out of economic chaos and despair'; it actually deepened and lengthened the Depression. World War II, not FDR's boldness,  got us out of economic trouble. Thanks to FDR, we have a fundamentally bigger, different government, for no good reason. A look at Clinton's proposals -- bailing out borrowers, universal health insurance, jobs through government infrasturcture spending, protectionism, income "fairness" -- does not exactly inspire confidence. At least John McCain admits he doesn't know much about the economy.