2 months ago, in the run-up to the default debacle, the leading Republican candidates for President repeatedly said that they weren’t all that bothered by the prospect that the United States would default on its debt.

They probably aren’t that bothered right now, looking at the possibility of a Eurozone default. 000G points out that Europe doesn’t have a real central bank like the Fed. But from Ron Paul’s point of view, not having a central bank is a good thing.

I agree that it really does look like many Republicans want unemployment to remain high, so Obama is blamed for that. But I don’t think that once a Republican takes the presidential oath of office in 2013, Republicans will pivot on a dime, and try to grow the economy. I must consider another possibility, that Republicans don’t care about unemployment, period. With high unemployment, companies have a deep pool of job applicants, wages can be kept low, and employees will work hard to keep their jobs. From the point of view of a corporation, that sounds pretty good.