NEW YORK – Something has been missing from the flood of commentary following the debate between US President Joe Biden and Donald Trump. While voters’ judgments about a candidate’s personality and personal strengths are important, everyone should remember the famous dictum: “It’s the economy, stupid.” In the firehose of outright lies that Trump spewed throughout the debate, the most dangerous falsehoods concerned his and Biden’s respective economic-policy records.
The Way Forward for Services-Led Economic Development Getty Images Economics 0The Way Forward for Services-Led Economic Development
Dani Rodrik & Rohan Sandhu propose strategies to boost income growth in countries where reliance on manufacturing is no longer feasible. The Profit Trap Feodora Chiosea/Getty Images Free to read Longer Reads 7The Profit Trap
Jean-Baptiste Wautier considers why capitalism is creating problems instead of solving them, and how to save the system from itself. Industrial Policy Is a Nostalgic Pipe Dream Dustin Chambers for The Washington Post via Getty Images Economics 14Industrial Policy Is a Nostalgic Pipe Dream
James K. Galbraith thinks a new economic-policy consensus among center-left economists largely misses the point. Assessing a president’s management of the economy is always a tricky business, because many developments will have been set in motion by one’s predecessors. Barack Obama had to deal with a deep recession because previous administrations had pursued financial deregulation and failed to head off the crisis that erupted in the fall of 2008. Then, with congressional Republicans tying the Obama........