By Amity Shlaes

Maybe U.S. financial markets have a chance after all. That's the message many of us take away from the news that Representative Paul Ryan will join Mitt Romney on the Republican presidential ticket.
To see why the bulls should be snorting, start by recalling the pattern in past elections. Candidates talked a lot about jobs. Then they patted themselves on the back for having covered "the economy."
But jobs don't cover the economy from the point of view of investors. To investors, job creation is a second-order effect. Market participants care first about interest rates, exchange rates, bond prices and the one great factor that affects all three: the long-term solvency of a bond company called the U.S. government. Yet the issues that affect that solvency are rarely taken up in the months before a general election. Even discussing Social Security has traditionally been considered the political equivalent of stepping on a "third rail."