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Last night the Republican presidential candidates (well, several of them anyway) gathered together in Milwaukee, WI, for the fourth primary debate. The event was hosted by Fox Business and the Wall Street Journal. The topic was economic issues, budgets, taxes … you know, like, money and stuff.

Rather than asking about online sports betting, or who said what about whose face, the questions were actually substantial. (As hard as it is to believe, there weren’t any worthless fluff questions.) The moderators were not, however, very good about clock enforcement. The timer was a game show ding and it seemed like nobody felt bound by it, so candidates went with canned speeches about someone they met somewhere and were allowed to ramble on (which happened several times).

Going into the debate, all eyes were on the two front runners, Donald Trump and Ben Carson. The two are running neck and neck in polling averages. There was speculation before the debate that Trump would go on the offensive against Carson, especially after last week’s drama. The Donald declined to do so. He was actually pretty reserved. (Reserved by Donald Trump standards. By normal standards he was, well, Donald Trump.)

Early on, Carson was specifically asked about trust. He was able to disarm the question by responding, “Thank you for not asking me what I said in the 10th grade.” He went on to make a point about Hillary Clinton’s honesty. (Say what you will, but he’s starting to get good at this stuff.)

There were only eight candidates on the main stage last night, and while there were still long gaps for some (sorry, John Kasich), each candidate had time to say their piece. Kasich called out Trump for his “silly argument” about deporting 11 million illegal immigrants. Jeb Bush called for a no-fly zone over Syria. Carly Fiorina talked about a three-page tax code, but clammed up in the latter part of the debate after Donald Trump asked “Why is she always interrupting people?”

Rand Paul wasn’t around much until he jumped in on a question about Marco Rubio’s child tax credit plan. Paul built it into a theme equating fiscal restraint with conservatism (which he followed up on during his closing statement). During a question about the Trans-Pacific Partnership — after Trump went off about China and then said, “I’m a free trader, 100 percent” (that’s news to a lot of people) — Paul pointed out that China isn’t part of the TPP.

Overall, as if befitting a discussion of financial issues, despite the big hall and the occasional cheering/booing, this debate had a sober tone. The hosts were able to avoid the Donald Trump Show circus atmosphere of the first debate, the Hobbesian war of all-versus-all of the second debate, and the overall train wreck of the third. It was just a serious (if a little boring) discussion of issues.

(And if you’re one of that special breed of sociopath who might actually use it, you can find a full transcript here.)

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