Since I have criticized the Harris campaign as being too thin on policy I thought it only right to read the economic policy briefing put out by the campaign. While I agree with many of the aspirations in the document, I found the proposals alternately puzzling and dismaying. I think it helps if you understand some of the phrases used in it.
For example, “tax cut” seems to mean a transfer payment administered through the tax system. It seems to be an article of faith that price increases are caused by “price gouging”, something never actually defined. Scott Sumner and others have pointed out that the available evidence suggests that price increases have been driven by demand rather than supply shocks.
I’m skeptical that subsidizing down payments for first-time homeowners will actually increase the affordability of homes. Indeed, I think it might do the opposite. When you increase the willingness to pay, prices go up. That is axiomatic.
How can we increase how much we manufacture (not how much it costs: how much we manufacture) in the United States? I think the two greatest barriers are excessive regulation and China. For the last 30 years China has targeted one industry after another, dumping goods made without the environmntal, labor, health, safety, etc. regulations we have here and making it uneconomical to compete against them.
92% of new businesses are retail or services providers. Furthermore, (speaking as a former small business owner who filled out his own tax returns) net revenue tends to be quite small for startups, i.e. their taxes aren’t very high. Reducing paperwork might be a much stronger incentive. I don’t know whether subsidizing startups is actually an investment or not.
The editors of the Wall Street Journal are equally skeptical, dubbing Kamalanomics “Bidenomics II”, consisting largely of higher taxes, new and bigger entitlements, transfer payments, subsidies, more student loan forgiveness, more federal control of healthcare, industrial policy, price controls, union gifts, and green energy largesse.