Will Bidenomics Deliver?

Opinion is divided as to whether US President Joe Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar spending programs and accompanying competition policies are precisely what the US economy needs. But one thing is clear: the transformative rhetoric behind the administration’s economic agenda has created a huge weight of expectation.

In this Big Picture, Laura Tyson, a former chair of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, and McKinsey & Company’s Lenny Mendonca argue that the best analogy for Bidenomics is California, which has successfully pioneered a strategy of innovation-based sustainable and inclusive growth. But Stanford University’s Michael J. Boskin thinks the Biden administration is grossly underestimating the risks of its spending plans, which could create huge deficits that will persist long after the economy has achieved full employment.

Meanwhile, Katharina Pistor of Columbia Law School welcomes Biden’s intention to crack down on the anti-competitive practices that shortchange US workers, consumers, and small businesses. And as the University of Chicago Law School’s Eric Posner notes, Biden’s recent executive order and appointments to top antitrust positions show that he is serious about strengthening enforcement. But as Anne O. Krueger of Johns Hopkins University argues, a better place to start would be with action to repeal regulations – including in the US maritime transport industry – that do far more harm than good.

Lastly, Jean Pisani-Ferry puts Biden’s economic-policy agenda in an international perspective, arguing that its main components amount to necessary but insufficient reforms that will merely help the United States catch up to other advanced economies.