Carter and Volcker did what had to be done with their shock therapy in '79 and '80. Lost an election, but it worked wonders.
Unfortunately, we can't do that again.
See, in 1979, the national debt to GDP ratio was the lowest it had been since the thirties. Plus, tax rates were quite a bit higher.
But, in 2008, we have the highest national debt to GDP ratio since Truman (WWII bonds). And, instead of Truman's 91% top tax rate paying off those debts, we have the lowest tax rates in the last 75 years.
So, we can't let interest rates rise, because if they quadruple, the money we pay to service the national debt quadruples.
Duceppe has the best ideas and leadership of any of them. Too bad the Bloc won't run outside of Quebec. "Quebec out of Canada now" would not be not an unpopular platform in the rest of Canada.