On December 3-5, 2014, the Institute of Politics at Harvard University held its biannual Bipartisan Program for Newly Elected Members of Congress. Most of the congress-people come. This year I was on a panel on the domestic US economy, titled the “Middle Class Crunch.” In Part I, presented here, I briefly reviewed recent economic statistics. Part II, laying out 8 recommended policies, will follow.
The standard economic statistics indicate that the US economy has been doing well lately, not just relative to the severe 2007-09 recession, but relative also to what most Americans think and relative to how other advanced countries are doing. This applies to (1) GDP, (2) jobs, (3) the stock market, and (4) the budget.