It took more than “markets” to wreck Detroit:

Krugman is right that Detroit is essentially Ground Zero of the disruptive changes wrought by an economy in transition. But as this story and others like it show, it’s difficult not to conclude that the city is also the victim of rampant fraud and stupidity on the part of an all-Democratic political machine. Officials decided time and again not to fund the promises they made to city pensioners, and feds and regulators just as often declined to do anything about it. If something this egregious and destructive were happening in the private sector, Mr. Krugman would (rightly, in our view) be all over it, demanding that people go to jail and regulations be tightened. He would want to investigate the ties of influence that allowed serious financial wrongdoing to go on for years without serious oversight. He’d name names and pin shame on the wrongdoers and their political allies.

But Krugman is a hack who hates markets, so everything looks like a nail to his socialist hammer.

It needs a blank slate.

Actually, the federal budget does, too. We need to institute zero-based budgeting. But neither is likely to happen, given the nature of the interests involved, and their ability to donate to campaign coffers.

…versus the actual public.

They’ve been making war on us for decades and, as FDR said, they should be abolished as an atrocity against the taxpayer.

[Update a few minutes later]

This seems related: how the National Labor Relations Act was written by a stealth communist.

Color me shocked. It’s one of those many federal laws that need repealing.