“It [Clintonomics] did not work.” Yes it did but Gore didn’t run on it. “You’ve never had it so good, and we’re just not going to take it anymore.” And in opposition Democrats did not realize the strategic error of allowing GWB to repeat the Regan error of cutting taxes while increasing the deficit. And the deficit was a great growth-killer.
Yes, there WAS a lot of talk about freer trade (meaning to large part getting foreign countries to pay for US “intellectual property” instead of reducing barriers to US mfg. good exports) but I claim that the real action in change of relative prices of manufactures was the container ship and reduction in foreigners import restriction = export restrictions via Lerner equivalence. And THAT change produced a Stoper-Samuelson shift against relatively unskilled (i.e.of skills similar to what “Chinese” (to reify) workers could achieve. Slower growth, market income shifting against unskilled workers and less progressive taxation were a bad mix but not a necessary outcome of “Neoliberalism.” I agree about the political contingencies.
“It hung on after 2010, even as the great-and-the-good did not just put the task of restoring full employment on the back burner, but took it off the stove entirely.” I don’t remember a single op-ed berating Bernanke-Yellen for failing to hit the Fed’s own inflation target. They should have been monthly, but starting 2008, not 2010.
Yes, maybe the most important step is for “Progressives” to become Reformed Neoliberals: prioritize growth and investment, high skilled immigration, taxation of net CO2 emissions, YIMBYism (really just cost-benefit analysis of all local regulations), progressive taxation of personal incomes, low deficits and hold the Fed’s feet to the fire in hitting its FAIT. [I don’t know if K-12 public education reform is on the critical path.]
Brilliant. Thank you. I think for individuals it is possible to be happy with the current regime, if we can control our anxieties and appetites. Not easy to do. My wife and I have done so, and it looks like son & his wife will. With far less effort, we're managing to live much better than my parents or grandparents ever dreamed of doing.
I know you have heard this all before but ...
“It [Clintonomics] did not work.” Yes it did but Gore didn’t run on it. “You’ve never had it so good, and we’re just not going to take it anymore.” And in opposition Democrats did not realize the strategic error of allowing GWB to repeat the Regan error of cutting taxes while increasing the deficit. And the deficit was a great growth-killer.
Yes, there WAS a lot of talk about freer trade (meaning to large part getting foreign countries to pay for US “intellectual property” instead of reducing barriers to US mfg. good exports) but I claim that the real action in change of relative prices of manufactures was the container ship and reduction in foreigners import restriction = export restrictions via Lerner equivalence. And THAT change produced a Stoper-Samuelson shift against relatively unskilled (i.e.of skills similar to what “Chinese” (to reify) workers could achieve. Slower growth, market income shifting against unskilled workers and less progressive taxation were a bad mix but not a necessary outcome of “Neoliberalism.” I agree about the political contingencies.
“It hung on after 2010, even as the great-and-the-good did not just put the task of restoring full employment on the back burner, but took it off the stove entirely.” I don’t remember a single op-ed berating Bernanke-Yellen for failing to hit the Fed’s own inflation target. They should have been monthly, but starting 2008, not 2010.
Yes, maybe the most important step is for “Progressives” to become Reformed Neoliberals: prioritize growth and investment, high skilled immigration, taxation of net CO2 emissions, YIMBYism (really just cost-benefit analysis of all local regulations), progressive taxation of personal incomes, low deficits and hold the Fed’s feet to the fire in hitting its FAIT. [I don’t know if K-12 public education reform is on the critical path.]
Supply-side abundance progressivism...
We really need a good name for this. No joke.
Agreed. But I do not have one, alas…
Brad
Organize a conference: Ezra, Matt, Brink Linsey, the folks from Progress Works, Eli Dourad
Very tempting, but I am overwhelmed right now…
Brad
Brilliant. Thank you. I think for individuals it is possible to be happy with the current regime, if we can control our anxieties and appetites. Not easy to do. My wife and I have done so, and it looks like son & his wife will. With far less effort, we're managing to live much better than my parents or grandparents ever dreamed of doing.