The exceedingly clear thinking Thomas Sowell (earlier posts here and here) is reviewing Democratic Party Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s positions on economic policy and doesn’t much like what he sees:

Senator Barack Obama recently said, “let’s allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this country’s middle class again.”
Ironically, he said it at a time when Detroit automakers have been laying off unionized workers by the tens of thousands, while Toyota has been hiring tens of thousands of non-union American automobile workers. [. . .]
Senator Obama is being hailed as the newest and freshest face on the American political scene. But he is advocating some of the oldest fallacies, just as if it was the 1960s again, or as if he has learned nothing and forgotten nothing since then. [. . .]
Senator Obama is not unique among politicians who want to control prices, as if that is controlling the underlying reality behind the prices. [. . .]
The underlying reality that politicians do not want to face is that here, too, prices convey a reality that is not subject to political control. . .

One of the hardest things for politicians to resist is indulging most voters’ tendency to believe economic fallacies. Unfortunately, most politicos do the easy thing and give the voters what they want to hear. That is probably a good approach to getting elected, but it’s a lousy one for governing.