Writing on Cato@Liberty, Johns Hopkins economics professor Steve Hanke discusses the problem of “regime uncertainty.” People hesitate to invest when they don’t know what curve balls (or bean balls, for that matter) government policy will throw at them. Hanke properly credits historian Robert Higgs for developing the idea, which Higgs originally applied to FDR’s New Deal. His hostility to business and the market process was one of the main reasons why the Great Depression lingered on and on. Obama is creating exactly the same hesitation.
by George Leef