A paper on the “Economic Consequences of the US Elections,” by Alan Cafruny, the Henry Platt Bristol Chair of International Affairs and Professor of Government, was recently published by the Valdai Discussion Club.
Cafruny compared President Trump’s re-election campaign, which he characterized as being based on “the prospect of a rapid return to the idealized pre-pandemic economy of the first three years of his presidency,” to that of former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign, which he said is focused on “racial justice, employment, elements of the Green New Deal…and the implementation of modestly redistributive tax policies.”
“The economic and social impact of neoliberal policies and practices informed the populist rhetoric that carried Trump to the White House in 2016,” Cafruny wrote, adding that the president then went on to govern “on behalf of the major power centers of corporate America.”
Noting that this year’s elections are “taking place amid an economic and social crisis that is comparable to the Great Depression,” Cafruny discussed the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment, growing inequality, and unrest stemming from racism and police violence, as some of the issues that make these elections so important.
