First the wrong:

On the Democratic side, it’s somewhat disappointing that Barack Obama, whose campaign has understandably made a point of contrasting his early opposition to the Iraq war with Hillary Clinton’s initial support, has tried to score a twofer by suggesting that the war, in addition to all its other costs, is responsible for our economic troubles.

The war is indeed a grotesque waste of resources, which will place huge long-run burdens on the American public. But it’s just wrong to blame the war for our current economic mess: in the short run, wartime spending actually stimulates the economy. Remember, the lowest unemployment rate America has experienced over the last half-century came at the height of the Vietnam War.

Krugman would be right on this, if it was during the Vietnam war. He seems to forget that we now have this new “global economy”. Most of our bullets are made in Israel, and now we got our planes being made in Europe. War doesn’t benefit our economy the same way it used to. Basically we have outsourced the “benefits of war” to other nations.

Let’s also not forget that for the first time in history we have seen taxes cut while at war. This has pushed our debt to record amounts. When a nation’s debt increases the pains are felt throughout the economic markets also. It has helped contribute to our sinking dollar.

Now for the part he gets right, and something the media is not talking about:

Last week Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary, declared that Mr. Frank is right about the need for expanded regulation. Mr. Rubin put it clearly: If Wall Street companies can count on being rescued like banks, then they need to be regulated like banks.

But will that logic prevail politically?

Not if Mr. McCain makes it to the White House. His chief economic adviser is former Senator Phil Gramm, a fervent advocate of financial deregulation. In fact, I’d argue that aside from Alan Greenspan, nobody did as much as Mr. Gramm to make this crisis possible.

There has been a terrible belief, promoted primarily by the right, that “business should be trusted”. The problem is they can’t. That is exactly what has caused the housing crisis. Predatory lenders were left unregulated and gave these mortgages to people who could not afford them. When this practice came back to bite them, the government had to bail them out.

Phil Gramm is a strong supporter of deregulation, something the media seems to be ignoring. Gramm’s wife was also on the board of Enron.

The deregulation theory isn’t confined to the GOP though. The Democrats have their own problem with it, specifically with one strong Clinton ally – Chuck Schumer. Schumer also is a strong advocate of deregulation.

But there is an even stronger key player in the Clinton campaign that helped get us into the current mess. That person is none other than Bill Clinton. In 1999 Bill Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Biley act into law, which repealed the 1933 Glass-Steagall act.

The Glass-Steagall act was enacted in 1933 and was officially called that Banking Act of 1935. This is the act that set up numerous regulatory safeguards for consumers. The repeal of it has been strongly attributed to the current mortgage crisis.

Krugman gave Clinton pretty much a pass in this article, yet she doesn’t deserve one. The only person that deserves a pass when it comes to the current economic crisis is Obama. He hasn’t been involved in the poor decisions that have lead us to the current situation. Perhaps we can find someone in the media to inform the voters of the truth and let them make decisions based upon that. If that were to happen then we might end up with someone in the Oval Office who really does care about America’s future.