By proposing trade barriers and tariffs, politicians are promising a return to an idealized past, but successful economic policy is focused on the future.
The degrowth movement, which had a moment a few years ago, is over — and not a moment too soon. As nations in Europe and North America face mounting debt and aging populations, politicians are again talking about how to increase economic growth. It is their only hope.
There’s only one problem: No one is advocating policies that will actually work. Doing that would require embracing change, which is the last thing any politician beholden to populism wants to do.
The best recent illustration is former President Donald Trump’s interview last week with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait. Trump argued that there was no need to worry about the debt created by his spending and tax-cutting plans because economic growth would bring in more government revenue. At the center of his plan are very large tariffs, which he argued would increase growth by encouraging more companies to produce goods in the US.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Bloomberg Opinion (paywall)
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Allison Schrager is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images
