A test of Kamala Harris's insight into economics, especially the concept of inflation.
When asked an economic policy question, Harris seems to act like "a real expert." Yet, is that the case? Listen to her answer about how she plans to reduce inflation.
What is she babbling about? Everyone can stand up and talk like that over a beer in an almost empty bar on a Saturday evening. Prices have risen, and we all know what that means—blah, blah, blah,…it is empty rhetoric. She cannot even reach the 101 level of a class of students. She is, in other words, flunked!
In 2022, the high inflation in the US was promoted by monetary policy measures because The FED raised interest rates and scaled back the purchase of bonds. Already then, the Biden administration's fiscal policy and Build Back Better plan suffered a disappointing fate because 50 Republican senators and one Democrat, Joe Manchin, voted against the plan, believing in the philosophy that a balanced public budget is possible, which is rarely, if ever, the case. The need for an expansionary fiscal policy, which could have had an expansionist effect, diminished because the original "Build Back Better Plan" was abandoned. The planned budget of $2 trillion for increased welfare shrunk to just under five hundred billion. What was left then was a hardline class policy directed against the working class, which had to bear the burden of the crisis. On top of the disadvantageous employment figures and the unemployment rates, inflation has decreased the household's purchase power immensely and has thrown millions out in either poverty or the degradation of the once important middle class that was the backbone of the US economy. This is a cause for concern for the future of households striving to make ends meet.
Furthermore, even if the plan is being implemented, it cannot be avoided that the expansionary impact on the macroeconomy will increase inflation further unless monetary policy measures accompany the fiscal policy. That remains to be seen in a country where neoliberal and neoconservative monetarism has been the preferred policy measure. Moreover, the so-called liberal Left is not the Left because Democrats favor corporate capitalism. This means the neoliberal adhere to the approach of privatization, liberalization, rolling back the frontiers of the Welfare State, busting unions, and squeezing wages through uncontrolled immigration. The Democrats are like the Republicans on the Right. The real Left, of course, means the dismantling of Capitalism and the promotion of a policy socializing private ownership to the means of Production through cooperative ownership and employee self-management.
Harris does not favor democratic socialism. However, it is important to note that democratic socialism offers a potential solution to the current economic and social issues. In this context, her speech is nonsense and not a starting point for a much-needed debate.