Business of post-midterms Washington is . . . business

ONE of the Republican Party's political icons has been former US president Calvin Coolidge, an ardent proponent of free-market economics who had presided over the American economic boom during the so-called Roaring Twenties of the preceding century, at a time when Ronald Reagan was starting his career in Hollywood and Milton Friedman was still a bookish teenager.

Mr Coolidge, who wasn't known for employing fiery rhetoric - in fact, he was nicknamed "Silent Al" - is still remembered for his quip that "the business o…