This is the “best and the brightest” we are talking about here! Very much in the model of the JFK/LBJ “best and brightest” that brought us the Vietnam war, the Bay of Pigs, and the Great Society.

We all know that history shows that a centrally managed economy far out-performs those messy markets with all those nasty ups and downs. All it takes is making sure that you have smart enough people with good intentions at the top and everything will work out fine.

I mean, look at the much more highly regulated and managed economies of Europe, where they managed to completely avoid this economic downturn. They did didn’t they? No, I have no patience with your kind of negativity. I have no doubt that this approach will work out as well for us every bit as well as it does in France, Germany, England and Iceland.

You just need high hopes.

Will our new President, with his new congress, pass one or more giant bills purportedly geared towards fixing our economy?

Of course. That’s a foregone conclusion in my mind.

Do the President and congress actually have the power to fix the economy, such as by picking winners and losers and wisely choosing the paths that have merits and sagely avoiding the potholes?

That’s where I become deeply agnostic…I’d like to hope so, but I seriously doubt it.