Why did it take McCain so long?

Sen. John McCain has finally recognized that our economy is not "fundamentally sound."

If he had some understanding of what's "fundamental" in economics, he would not have missed the boat for so long.

All he needed to do was pay some attention to the economic ups and downs during the eight years of the Bush administration.

Unemployment is up. Inflation has been on the rise too, even though you'd expect it to ease with a weakening economy.

This is a nasty combination, since the tools government uses to reduce unemployment tend to increase inflation and vice versa.

Federal deficits and the federal debt are up. We've added over $2 trillion of red ink to our nation's debt. Now we get to pay interest on it, which makes it that much harder to reduce deficits in the future.

Total household mortgage debt is up by about 50 percent since 2000. Medical care expenses are up.

But not everything is up. The value of the dollar is down. The stock market is down.

Unemployment, inflation, federal deficits and federal debt, household debt, the stock market, the dollar - these are economic fundamentals.

Economists have been telling us for the past three or four years that they're out of kilter here in the United States. Anyone who understands economic fundamentals knows that these imbalances are not sustainable.

Add to all that the policies of the Bush administration to encourage easy credit, combined with bank regulation more lax than anything since the days of Herbert Hoover, and you have a recipe for the crisis we are now enduring.

Sen. McCain's 13th-hour effort to mend his tattered economic fences simply confirms that he was telling us the truth when he said he knew little about economics.

We can't expect him to fix problems he doesn't understand and does not even acknowledge until he is hit between the eyes with a two-by-four.

Seth Eisner

Arlington Heights