Mr. President, don't become a populist

Immigration reform is probably the most troublesome issue for both parties. Neither conservatives nor the labor movement likes immigration, legal or otherwise. But the business community understands that without the lifeblood that comes with hardworking immigrants, their businesses will suffer. This is especially true for talented graduates from our top universities. What sense does it make for our universities to train foreign physicists and engineers, only to have them be forced to leave America and go back home once they get their degrees? No sense at all, unless you buy into the populist rhetoric of the anti-immigrant forces out there…

Populists love to hate the Federal Reserve, and populists on the left and on the right have threatened to hold up the reappointment of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. He probably did more than any other single figure to keep us out of a deep depression, and for all of his good work, this is the thanks he gets. If it doesn’t make you nervous to have politicians assert more control over monetary policy, it should. Politicians don’t do a very good job of protecting the value of currency. If you don’t believe me, ask Argentina what its experience has been.