In the hullabaloo over Snubgate, the exuberance of the Rally for the Republic is a bit of a distant memory. Here’s a recap, from an economics perspective, by Amateur Economists columnist J.D. Seagraves (aka G.E.), with an anti-duopoly twist:

Economically speaking, the Democratic and Republican conventions were exercises in massive self-delusion. Barack Obama and his party acolytes bragged about how they would spend money we don’t have (we’re $10 trillion in the hole, by the way), and McCain and the Republicans promised to balance the budget, strengthen the dollar, and close the $70 trillion Medicare/Social Security shortfall, all without a tax hike or fundamental changes to the monetary system.

Yeah, right.

Neither party talked about the Federal Reserve. The “debate,” if it can be called that, is between a top tax rate of 39.5% (Obama) or 35% (McCain). On economic matters, there is considerably more agreement between the two, supposedly competing American political parties than between factions within the Communist Party of China – and the ChiComms are considerably more economically literate, too.

But ten miles down the road from the Republican Party’s Orwellian big-government love fest, Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic drew more than 10,000 economically educated patriots, who stood and cheered at the mention of the “Austrian theory of the business cycle,” and repeatedly broke out into impromptu chants of “End the Fed!” Imagine asking John McCain what he thought of the Austrian theory – “we might as well be speaking Chinese,” said author and historian Thomas Woods.

Read the rest.