Such candidates are usually isolationist, desire heavier government regulation of the economy and subsidies for the poor.

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To do it they need to reduce the bureaucratic regulation of life, clear the government out of the productive parts of the economy, do as the Nordics do.

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Assuming this perturbs rather than excites you, imagine if the federal government put the brakes on all this over-regulation of the economy for just a little while.

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In a recent study of seven different sectors of the Thai economy, McKinsey, a consultancy, found that poor government regulation was the single biggest barrier to productivity growth in almost every instance, whether in manufacturing or services, in export-oriented or locally consumed products.

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Transparency, clarity, and certainty in government taxation and regulation would go a long way toward helping family businesses prosper, to the benefit of workers and the economy, says Ann Kinkade.

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Although taxes of so-called fatty foots appeals to some politicians as a stealth way to raise government revenue in a struggling economy, there are some signs of pushback from a public weary of the tax-regulation-litigation cycle.

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He pointed to planning reforms and cutting red tape as examples of how the government was boosting growth - but vowed not to repeat the mistakes of the past on bank regulation when building the "new" economy.

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In some ways, the times cry out for more active government: for stronger regulation of banks and near-banks, for much more short-term government spending to counteract the contraction elsewhere in the economy, and for the establishment of a basic health-care system for everyone.

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