Best columns: Economic policy, Embracing bear markets

Pandering to economists

It’s too bad the presidential candidates don’t pander to economists, said N. Gregory Mankiw in The New York Times. If they did, they would be touting free trade, bashing farm subsidies, standing up for oil speculators, hiking gasoline taxes, and raising the retirement age. They also might try inviting more skilled immigrants into the country, liberalizing drug policy in the interest of personal freedom, and, for good measure, they could throw in some money for economic research. Those policies won’t buy the candidates many votes with other special interest groups, but it will certainly rally economists behind them.

Bear markets: The long-term investor’s best friend

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Plenty of people are panicking as they watch stocks dive, said Jason Zweig in The Wall Street Journal, and yanking money from the market. “But if you are still in your saving and investing years, a bear market is a gift from the financial gods.” It lets you buy stocks on the cheap, and maximize your returns when the market bounces back. And the longer the bear lasts, “the better off you will be. Instead of running from the bear, you should embrace him."