A string of positive economic news — slowing inflation, an upward revision in gross domestic product, continued strength in the job market, signs of a nascent surge in factory construction — has the Biden administration going all out to define “Bidenomics” as the doctrine of our time.
As a basic exercise in credit-taking, it makes a lot of sense. The US has had the strongest GDP recovery from the pandemic of any developed country in the world, and though inflation remains above target, it is currently lower than what any peer country is experiencing. Anything the White House can do to call attention to those facts is smart. Also, the time is right for a big push on these points because inflation has fallen enough that wages have finally started to rise faster than prices.
Still, Bidenomics as a doctrine looks an awful lot like an accident. Once upon a time in the era of Build Back Better, President Joe Biden’s economic vision had three major pillars that have all since crumbled. One was a view that an adequate recovery from the pandemic required a major investment in the “care economy,” with big new federal programs to subsidize child and elder care. Another was a legacy-defining push to slash child poverty with an expanded and fully refundable Child Tax Credit. The third was a move away from the Clinton- and Obama-era focus on long-term deficit reduction in favor of a view that new spending should be paid for but that fiscal discipline as such was not a major concern.
