I really liked the Amity Shlaes column in today’s Washington Post defending Phil Gramm’s recent comments (about the “Mental Recession” and the “Nation of whiners”).

She identifies the problem of “Campaign Econ”:

Campaign Econ says the American economy is a certain way because Americans think it is. Campaign Econ competes with real economics and often wins — with damage that extends way beyond, say, the political career of either Phil Gramm or John McCain.

This is a real problem, and the fact that both McCain and Obama seem to prefer lying for their own political interests, over considering genuine problems and solutions, is bad for the country. Gramm’s advice would have been much better than any we’ll see from these two (and their surviving advisors).

But, I really liked the comment from Don Boudreaux:

“Campaign Econ” (the “economics” typically babbled by politicians) is to real economics as astrology is to astronomy.