So it’s McCain versus Obama.

The polls say the economy is the most important issue for American voters. It therefore ironic that they have picked as Presidential candidates a man who admits he knows nothing about economics and a man who appears to know nothing about economics.

There are, of course, other important issues in the election, like Iraq and abortion, but it is vital for us, as entrepreneurs, that someone pins these two men down to some sensible economic policies.

At the moment, both are talking as if they are living on some other planet where there is no recession, no energy crisis, and no Federal deficit.

So here are the questions both should be made to answer, or at least consider seriously:

1   How will your policies increase global trade?

2   Are you going to do anything serious – as opposed to talk airily about “alternative sources” – concerning the energy crisis?

3   How will you cut regulatory burdens to make American industry more competitive?

4   How will your taxing and spending plans reduce Federal borrowing?

5   How will you reduce the costs of employing people in America so that new jobs will be located in the USA rather than abroad?

6   How will you target any tax cuts so that the money is more likely to be invested in future business growth?

At the moment, all the talk is of more spending, more taxing, more Federal borrowing, more burdens on business, increased costs of employing people, and attacks on free trade – everything, in fact, that might prolong a recession or turn it into something worse.