The Great Depression Nobel Laureate James Buchanan has endorsed a new study by UK free-market think tank the Institute for Economic Affairs that argues the Obama administration is making the same mistakes that were made in dealing with Depression #1. A key paragraph from the report: "In particular, the authors, economists Charles Rowley of George Mason University and Nathanael Smith of the Locke Institute, claim that the White House's plans to pour hundreds of billions of dollars of cash into the economy will undermine it in the long run. They say that by employing deficit spending and increased state intervention President Obama will ultimately hamper the long-term growth potential of the US economy and may risk delaying full economic recovery by several years." I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but as I see it, the day of the 'strong dollar policy' is gone. What would go the largest distance toward economic recovery in America would be a nice bout of dollar devaluation. Yup, that's right, inflation. Here's why: A 50% inflation managed as quickly as possible would increase the minimum wage to north of $10/hour. A 50% inflation would mean people would still have equity in their homes. A 50% inflation would effective double the price of foreign-made goods and bring jobs back to America. Oh, and it would cause much lower consumption levels of energy since its costs, too, would be going up. Then put some dough into things like solar panel manufacturing, a mandatory refit of every home in America to bring insulation up to snuff - there's no end of real work to be done. Even a movement pushing a few federal bucks in the direction of local -sustainable -agriculture would be nice. Fortunately, no one will listen to my suggestions; they'll just come out that way in the end, so rather than embrace the concepts now, we're going to go squabbling and arguing down that path anyway. Gold will soar, energy will soar, food will become dear or scarce, and the average person will ask "Gee, how'd th...