To the Editor:

One of the most basic facts of this election is something that neither the erstwhile “watchdogs of the media,” nor even President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden seem willing to point out – so I will do so.

Every economic idea the Republicans have put forward since 1980, and are putting forward now, was thoroughly debunked in 1927. Unregulated markets caused the first Great Republican Depression, and it took President Franklin D. Roosevelt 11 years of government spending and regulation to fix President Calvin Coolidge’s mess.