If you ever find yourself running for President of the United States, first of all my condolences,

but that's not what I want to focus on, if you are running for president, one of your

duties is apparently to pretend you're a doctor and that your patient is the American economy

and that only you have the power to figure out what is making your patients so sick.

This country is in big trouble, we don't win anymore, we lose to China, we lose to Mexico,

both in trade and at the border, we lose to everybody.

We must raise incomes for hardworking Americans so they can afford a middle-class life.

There's a long list of potential diagnoses and even longer list of potential causes.

It's like when you catch a cold and then you try to figure out of all the sneezing, sniffling,

snottie people you saw recently, who did this to you?

The greed of the billionaire class, the greed of Wall Street is destroying this economy.

Sad reality is big government, massive taxes, massive regulation doesn't work.

And even though the US economy is far healthier than most countries' economies and also it

should be said way healthier than most economies throughout history, the prognosis given by

the candidates is usually somewhere between dire and fatal.

This country is running out of time, we can't afford to have another four years like the

last eight years.

We're on the verge of economic collapse.

Most presidential candidates are of course not MDs, but nor are they economists, which

you might think would be kind of sort of helpful for a job that seems to have so much to do

with the economy.

So today on Freakinomics Radio, let's talk to someone who is an economist.

...