Some common sense....

History repeats . . . sort of:

"The fairly uncontroversial argument that some regulations might have mitigated our current problems has been transformed, in the minds of many commentators, into a belief that the meltdown must therefore have been the result of deregulation, or of rapacious financiers deliberately crippling the regulatory apparatus. Hence the frequent invocation of that magic name, Glass-Steagall, which of course can summon the spirit of FDR to fix the economy if only the president is brave enough to speak it three times aloud."

It is scary how much of the "FDR argument" you hear nowadays regarding the economy. FDR's policies did almost nothing to fix the economy; but they did make some people feel better. Would a modern version of Smoot - Hawley have fixed the free trade problems? How silly can people (especially the media) be? Read the whole post...