Inflation

Christian Britschgi | 10.16.2024 3:45 PM

The Biden era's high inflation has been terrible for the economy and the country generally. But did it save us from a more permanent progressive takeover of federal government policy?

That's the tantalizing question hanging over a recent piece published by Vox Senior Politics Correspondent Andrew Prokop that chronicles the rise, and pending fall, of "New Progressive Economics."

President Joe Biden obviously was not the left's preferred candidate in the 2020 Democratic primary.

But, as Prokop tells it, he staffed his administration with lots of ultra-progressive wonks and political operatives who wanted to overthrow the Democratic Party's perceived "neoliberal" consensus on trade and regulation in favor of aggressive anti-trust enforcement, proactive industrial policy, protectionism, and a massive increase in social spending.

They basically got most of what they wanted, starting with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP)—a law pitched as a pandemic........

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