AlterNet: 'America depends on it': Nobel-winning economist reveals key lesson Dems must learn from 2024
AlterNet - 'America depends on it': Nobel-winning economist reveals key lesson Dems must learn from 2024
Democrats were hoping to convince enough Americans that their management of the post-pandemic economy was good enough to keep them in power. But after a majority of voters instead chose to send President-elect Donald Trump back to the White House, one top economist argues that Democrats have an important lesson to learn if they hope to win future elections.
In a Thursday op-ed for the Guardian, Joseph Stiglitz — the former chief economist for the World Bank who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001 — said Democrats merely offering tweaks to the current economic order is no longer sufficient. While he credited President Joe Biden's administration for guiding the United States through the initial post-Covid spike in inflation rates and maintaining a near-full employment economy (the U.S. had the best economic recovery of all G7 nations in the wake of the pandemic), it "wasn't good enough."
"Americans haven’t forgotten that the Democrats let loose the financial sector (Clinton), then bailed out the banks while homeowners and workers who lost their jobs in the Great Recession carried the cost (Barack Obama). Moreover, it was Clinton who unleashed globalization, tacitly believing in a trickle-down economics that would ultimately benefit everyone," Stiglitz wrote. "The only real difference between Democrats and Republicans on this score is that Democrats claimed to feel the pain of those who were losing out."
Stiglitz emphasized that Trump's economy won't be friendly for most working-class Americans. He noted that Trump ran on and may enact another tax cut package that will overwhelmingly benefit the rich at the expense of workers, repeal the Affordable Care Act and implement broad tariffs that will harm both consumers and small businesses alike. He defined Trump's economic vision as "ersatz capitalism, run for and by the powerful" with the guiding principle that "money matters above all else."
"Like nationalists everywhere, Trump blames America’s problems on outside forces, from immigration to 'unfair' trade' But while it is true that neither issue has been managed very well, his proposed solutions would be disastrous for the US economy and the world," Stiglitz argued. "The extent to which his voters understood this is unclear. Most seem to have been drawn to the political theatre. They wanted to send a message of dissatisfaction, and now they have done so."
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M’kay 