Trad Guy,
Your statement about economics being about the national body politic and national greatness, where do you get this idea?
Is it simply a love of power?
In this instance I think you are being overgenerous in terming this statement of his an idea. It's nothing more than daylight madness and, as such, is unanswerable.
His neoconnish taste for aggression is also gravely troubling (it's very Jєωιѕн, too, of course). I'd bet fifty (virtual) bucks that, like most "national greatness" types, he's never been in uniform yet expects others to do the fighting and dying for him.