Following the first installment of a year-end interview on the global outlook, I turn in the second installment to the domestic economy.
Part 2. The US Economy
Q – As economic adviser to President Clinton, you oversaw one of the most prosperous periods in recent U.S. history. How do you assess the economic strategy of the Obama administration? What would you have done differently were you an adviser?
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.
Commentators are taking note of the five-year anniversary of the fiscal stimulus that President Obama enacted during his first month in office. Those who don’t like Obama are still asking “if the fiscal stimulus was so great, why didn’t it work?” What is the appropriate response?