It's 3:00 a.m. and global markets are tanking. . .

So who do we want to answer the phone? A WSJ story observes that the current leading candidates don't seem to offer much choice.

But it's not about the candidates themselves. We don't want populist policies (e.g., anti-trade) that get votes in the short run but are likely to lead to economic disaster (in other words, we'd rather that phone didn't ring in the first place).  And we don't want a president whose economically naive populist policies will frame his or her response to whatever disasters occur.

Hopefully the current turmoil and its effect on all Americans will make people see that, yes, economics and markets do matter.