I would make fun of Gov. Perry's economics as well, but this is not a macro blog and a number of commenters would fuss at me for daring to venture into territory that I know nothing about:
Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former Utah governor who has been stuck in the second tier of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, took an aggressive new tone during a televised interview on Sunday, saying that recent remarks from two of his major rivals were “extreme” and “unrealistic.”
He was referring, respectively, to two of the most conservative Republican candidates – Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and the latest entry in the contest, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas – both of whom have far overshadowed him in polling of Republican voters.
Mr. Huntsman singled out two areas of commentary by Mr. Perry that have drawn particular criticism – Mr. Perry’s skepticism about the human causes of global warming as an unproven theory, and his suggestion that actions by Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, to give the economy a boost might be “treasonous.”
He warned against the Republican Party becoming what he called “the anti-science party,” which he said would create “a huge problem” in 2012. In an appearance on the ABC News program “This Week,” Mr. Huntsman added, “I think when you find yourself at an extreme end of the Republican Party, you make yourself unelectable.”
Mr. Huntsman also scoffed at Mrs. Bachmann’s suggestion that, if elected president, she would help bring the price of gasoline to below $2 a gallon.
“I just don’t know what world that comment would come from,” Mr. Huntsman said. “That is completely unrealistic. And, again, it’s talking about things that, you know, may pander to a particular group or sound good at the time, but it just simply is not founded in reality.”
via thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com
I've tried to resist commenting since that stuff came out and I can resist no longer. In bullet form:
- The Fed doesn't "print money." Instead they buy and sell bonds in order to influence the level of interest rates. The Fed has been buying bonds. Buying bonds reduces interest rates and injects money into the economic system (it is easy to see how someone might get this confused but you hope your President doesn't). Printing money, especially to cover the deficit, would cause some serious inflation. Inflation in the U.S. during a period of expansionary monetary policy has been curiously low.
- Managing the money supply to increase employment is one of the Fed's mandates (kind of the opposite of treason). The other is price stabilization (i.e., manage inflation). Pursuit of these two goals are sometimes conflicting which can create political tension. Yet, this tension rarely rises to a roughing-up-someone level.
There, I'm glad I said it (and here is a comment on Rep. Bachmann's promise). Now maybe I can get some sleep.
Note: I've never taken any coursework or done any serious reading on the science of climate change so I'll leave that one alone. But, I agree with Gov. Huntsman that an anti-science political party would be taking a few steps back.
