The good thing about the presidential debates is that they give us a clear idea of where each candidate wants to take the country. Not in great detail, with every twist and turn on the road to each man’s promised land marked off, but in terms of the general direction. Obama wants more government, Romney less or at least no more. Obama wants to base a new tax structure on fairness, Romney on incentives to create jobs. Obama wants to subsidize wind, solar power, and electric vehicles, and restrain the development of oil, gas, and coal resources, while Romney wants to eliminate impediments to the development of fossil fuels, and let renewables look to the market for capital.
Romney wishes, if elected, that he could ditch Ben Bernanke before his term expires at the end of January 2014, and certainly will replace him then with a chairman less eager to print money, while Obama will hunt for a replacement—assuming Bernanke sticks to his plan to combine the serenity of academic life with the material advantages of consulting and board membership—who sees no reason not to add QE4 to the existing fleet. Both want to “create jobs,” as if that is within their power, and cut the deficit, or at least Obama says he does.
