In his column today, Victor Davis Hanson puts his finger on one of the main reasons why the economy continues to fizzle, namely the many ways in which the regime’s agenda hurts small businesses. More taxes, more mandates, a green light for vexatious litigation, and so on.
Historian Robert Higgs has written that one of the chief reasons why the economy remained flat for so long during FDR’s reign was his constant hostility to business. Under Obama, we don’t have the rhetorical hostility (“economic royalists” and such blabber) but we have an abundance of policies that, as Hanson puts it, try to produce wool by skinning the sheep.
The one element Hanson doesn’t include is the pro-labor stance Obama takes. Unions impede efficiency, but since they funnel a lot of their money haul into Democratic campaigns, they’re getting the red carpet treatment.
All in all, this is a time when investment looks increasingly unattractive.
