Blinder’s Grade Inflation for the Biden Economy

There is a reason voters don’t trust this president to manage the economy.

Letter to WSJ.

"Alan Blinder’s op-ed “Biden vs. Trump: A Choice, Not an Echo, on Economic Policy” (March 28) deals in fantasies rather than facts. The Trump economy, pre-Covid, had lower inflation as well as higher inflation-adjusted growth in wages, gross domestic product, and the stock market than the Biden economy has so far.

On climate, President Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers acknowledges that the policy benefits are minuscule. He also has us sidelining natural gas, a critical element in real-world emission reductions.

Innovation that brings green-energy costs down is the key to a progressive climate policy. Instead, Mr. Biden is enriching special interests by mandating Americans into more expensive green energy—cars, stoves and washing machines.

”What about immigration?” asks Mr. Blinder. Yet he ignores how Mr. Biden’s open-border policy has led to unchecked flows of fentanyl and criminal activity, as well as degradation of the quality of life in many U.S. cities.

Mr. Blinder’s alarm bells are reminiscent of 2016, when his fellow economists warned of the economic demise and stock-market crashes that President Trump would bring. The polling of the electorate on economic policy indicate that Americans have learned the lesson.

Casey B. Mulligan and Tomas J. Philipson

Chicago

Mr. Mulligan was chief economist of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, 2018-19. Mr. Philipson was the Council’s acting chairman, 2019-20."