David Stockman: Four Ways the Republicans Have Destroyed the Economy

Republicans used to believe that prosperity depended upon the regular balancing of accounts — in government, in international trade, on the ledgers of central banks and in the financial affairs of private households and businesses, too. But the new catechism, as practiced by Republican policymakers for decades now, has amounted to little more than money printing and deficit finance — vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vestments of the prosperous classes.

This approach has not simply made a mockery of traditional party ideals. It has also led to the serial financial bubbles and Wall Street depredations that have crippled our economy. More specifically, the new policy doctrines have caused four great deformations of the national economy, and modern Republicans have turned a blind eye to each one.

The four ways:
1) abandoning Bretton Woods, leading to an $8 trillion deficit in international currency exchange
2) the mammoth growth in public debt due to tax cuts
3) the huge, largely unregulated expansion of the financial industry
4) outsourcing of American jobs

Of course, the Democrats are to blame too. But the Republicans have completely embraced these irresponsible policies-- to a much greater extent than Dems.

The question I have is what exactly led to this mindset in the Repubs? What or who is controlling it, and how are though controlling the Repubs so effectively?