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Can Bernie Do It? Public Seminar: An economist takes a hard look at the Sanders platform
November 19, 2019
James K. Galbraith
Taking Core and Expanded Sanders together, let’s ask: regardless of whether any particular element might be enacted or defeated in Congress, what are the economic effects of the various planks in Sanders’s platform? And what would be the economic consequences of a Sanders presidency, taken as a whole?
Excerpt:
...Sanders has expanded his policy portfolio in two critical directions. One is the Green New Deal, buttressed by the job guarantee. The other is the abolition of several classes of personal debt. The GND would assure that the economy would continue to operate at a high level, while necessitating transitional and precautionary measures to guard against inflation and excessive trade deficits. The proposals for debt abolition carry a deeper signal about the future course of American society. If they catch on politically, they could grow into a fundamental challenge to an economy dominated by Big Finance and the oligarchs of our Gilded Age.
The question posed by this paper at the outset was a matter of basic economics. If we take each major element of the Sanders program, both the “Core” and the “Expanded,” and put them together in a package, do they add up to a reasonable strategy for the economy, as well as for the goals of justice, jobs, and dealing with climate change? If he is given the chance, Can Bernie Do It?
It appears that a reasonable answer, based on a general evaluation of his agenda, is: yes he can.
James K. Galbraith is a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, the University of Texas at Austin, a former Executive Director of the Joint Economic Committee, US Congress, and a distant adviser to the Sanders campaign.
https://publicseminar.org/essays/can-bernie-do-it/