A blog about capitalism + democracy leading to peace is, more generally, a blog about politics, economics, and security. So naturally, I’m interested in how leading Democrats view the economy, a subject Bloomberg’s Matthew Benjamin has examined. His conclusion: Democrats are offering nostrums from the past, drawing from independent Ross Perot’s 1992 “giant sucking sound” campaign against jobs lost to free trade. Democratic candidates focus on voter discontent over lost jobs, stagnant incomes and the growing gap between rich and poor:
60% in an April Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll said there will be a recession within a year. “The issue driving the anxiety is not the number of jobs but the kinds of jobs being created," says Matthew Slaughter, Dartmouth professor of economics. “Real income growth for many Americans has been quite poor in recent years, with a lack of strong earnings growth along all parts of the income distribution," Slaughter says.
75% in a December Bloomberg poll said the widening gap between rich and poor is a serious concern. John Edwards is “very concerned [that] 150 million Americans . . .combined earn what the top 300,000 earn," says Leo Hindery, Edwards’s economic policy adviser. From 2000 through the first half of '07, high-paid workers at the 90th percentile of earnings saw their income rise 6.4 percent, while salaries for those at the 10th percentile fell 2.9 percent, according to an Economic Policy Institute study.
Assertions that global trade harms American workers have been a staple of Democratic campaigns since 1988, when Dick Gephardt won the Iowa caucuses by blaming U.S. economic woes on Japanese and South Koreans. Gephardt, 66, is now a top economic adviser to Hillary Clinton. In 1997 Clinton said, “The simple fact is, nations with free-market systems do better. . .Those nations which have lowered trade barriers are prospering more than those that have not." But in 2005, Clinton voted against the Central American Free Trade Agreement. And this June, she announced opposition to the free trade deal with South Korea.
Obama has had the least to say about trade. He recognizes the benefits of lowering tariffs, according to his top economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist. "However. . . we need to be mindful about those left behind," Goolsbee says.
1 comment:
This from "an anonymous Hillary fan":
The worst thing about Hillary is all the pandering things she says.
The best thing about Hillary is that she doesn't really mean any of them.
The second worst thing about Hillary is that she will do some grandstand things to try to look like she means what she said.
The second best thing about Hillary is that these will be primarily cosmetic.
The third worst thing about Hillary is that she will not be able to stop the recession that will be accelerated by expectations of wild spending based on her wild promises.
The third best thing about Hillary is that the recession will give her a reason (excuse) not to fulfill the more expensive promises.
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