Charles Krauthammer - From Market Economy to Political Economy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/27/AR2008112702052.html

In the old days -- from the Venetian Republic to, oh, the Bear Stearns rescue -- if you wanted to get rich, you did it the Warren Buffett way: You learned to read balance sheets. Today you learn to read political tea leaves. [...] Today's extreme stock market volatility is not just a symptom of fear -- fear cannot account for days of wild market swings upward -- but a reaction to meta-economic events: political decisions that have vast economic effects. As economist Irwin Stelzer argues, we have gone from a market-driven economy to a politically driven economy.