Ted Cruz just named Phil Gramm his economic advisor.
The distinguishing feature of Gramm’s career in public service is hostility to regulation in almost every form. “Gramm, with his Southerner’s mistrust of big government, believes that markets, left to their own devices, eventually will find the most efficient way of bringing together buyers and sellers,” wrote former Securities and Exchange Chairman Arthur Levitt in his memoir, “Take on the Street.” “‘Unless the waters are crimson with the blood of investors,’ he exclaimed in one meeting, with a finger in my chest, ‘I don’t want you embarking on any regulatory flights of fancy.’”