Uncertainty? Don't Be So Sure

One of the more annoying economic truisms is that "markets hate uncertainty." It's a line that's been used ad nauseam by corporate honchos and policymakers in recent months. House majority leader Eric Cantor is one of many who have complained that "jobs-destroying regulations" have created a "cloud of uncertainty" in the business environment that prevents companies from getting off their $2 trillion pile of cash to create some new jobs. If only the global consequences of the European debt crisis were more certain, investors fret, stock markets would stabilize. And so on and on and on.

This is nonsense. For starters,...