George Will’s latest Newsweek column laments the growing support within Congress for protectionist policies.
I particularly enjoyed this passage near the end of the piece:
Presidential elections are always epidemics of economic illiteracy and
hysteria, for two reasons: The party not holding the White House has an
incentive to talk gloomy nonsense, and the media, for whom the phrase
“good news” is an oxymoron (“We don’t report the planes that land
safely”), love crises. In 2004, Democrats spoke of “the worst economy
since Hoover” and “Benedict Arnold CEOs.” Republicans will, in time,
have their wilderness season for spouting nonsensical pessimism.
