Fear and Loathing in Charlotte

The President's speech ... no line from its' delivery should scare - and I mean literally cause fear, a shudder down the spines of Americans - than the following:

" And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades. It will require common effort, shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one."

Forget any notion that I'm simply beating up on FDR. Been there. Done that. Won that (hehe). However, there is a school of thought out there that I lend some credence to, that it was not WWII, alone, that ended the era of depression, recessions, and unemployment collectively referred to as the Great Depression. It contends that more than high taxes or massive regulation, a free market can not abide one thing above all - unpredictability from its' government. Many of FDR's deals, taxes, tariffs, and various government excursions into the private sector had yearly sunsets attached. They were in constant need of renewal. In addition, he routinely rolled out new plans meant to either replace, remove or build upon old ones (both via rhetoric and signed law). Add to this that along the way one law after another was tossed out or confirmed by the SCOTUS (the many challenges a result of his routinely pushing the boundaries of Constitutionality). Businesses had no idea whether this years law would apply next year. And that uncertainty had one effect - it was paralyzing. FDR was quite literally "experimenting" from a socialist (and that's what the man was, his second bill of rights speech makes that abundantly clear to even the casual observer of history) rolodex of ideas, plans and programs born of an ideology that governments should be in the business of guaranteeing results.

This theory then goes on to conclude that the markets finally went into legitimate, sustainable recovery upon FDR's death. Truman did not continue the model of yearly experimentation, of routine, radical roll outs. I'm not saying he massively rolled back what was law. But he did end the cycle of year in and year out roll outs of new, untried, plans (or "deals"). In other words, had FDR lived, America's post war boom would have never occurred - his style of governance was simply too unpredictable for markets to catch their breath (as a side note to this theory I would contend that attempting his second bill of rights, no matter how slowly or deliberate, would have been a death knell to the post war American economy).

At any rate, fast forward, and here we are again. This president, not content with passing the largest unpredictable - in its many phases, multi year roll outs, and uncertain interpretations - new mandate in US history via Obamacare, he has now flatly promised to continue "experimenting" with solutions, solutions provided by, guided by, an eerily similar ideology to the man he seems to so admire (I mean FDR, not Lenin ... although...).

Just think about that line, that word: experiment. Experiment? An avowed "I think it works better when you spread the wealth around" ideologue has a plan. It's big. It's audacious. And here it is - he's going to EXPERIMENT with the US economy. Well I feel better already. You're going to experiment. Gotcha. No worries. I'm sure the market loves the idea of experimenting. I'm telling you friends, this line of reasoning (if you can call it that) goes hand in hand with "fundamentally transforming America." Adam Smith's invisible hand of the market, individualism over collectivism, private property rights, the basic tenets of the Constitution, all of this, in his view, leaves too much up to chance. It doesn't say "what the government must do on your behalf." These ideas, those notions aren't in the business of guaranteeing results, only process. And he finds that insufficient. Antiquated. Those are cute, quaint little ideas from "the era of black and white television" (as he described the RNC convention). And tonight he promised to experiment with alternative models until he finds one that "works."

So ask yourself, with this promise on the table, how many "bold experiments" could we expect to see rolled out in an Obama second term? To paraphrase a truly eloquent "Bill",  dear friends, pray you avoid this place.