Bidenomics: Back to the Future?

While our Week 1 presentation focused on understanding the three pillars of economics and microeconomics, our Week 1 DB is forward looking, as you dive headfirst into the macroeconomics behind the current Administration’s macroeconomic policy objectives.

As you’ll see by reading the Atlantic piece below, the Biden approach is actually hints of policies prescribed n the 1960s. The president simply doesn’t accept the old saw that “the era of big government is over” that his Democratic-party predecessors (Clinton and Obama) did. So as we’ll be discussing traditional macroeconomics in this course, perhaps it’s helpful to give you a sense at the beginning of just how unusual the current Administration’s approach is. That will help us to be able to put what’s going on now into the perspective of conventional macroeconomic thinking.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/05/biden-economy-inflation-yellen/618816/

Your task this week? Identify three of the most important differences between the current Administration’s approach and those of Presidents Obama and Clinton. List and explain each in of importance. That is, you’re to rank the most important, second-most important, and third-most important. For each of these differences, prepare an additional paragraph that evaluates the associated risk(s). Then, in your final paragraph, make a prediction about whether the Administration’s new overall approach will succeed or not, making sure to summarize clearly why you think the way you do. In your follow-up comment posts, you’ll want to discuss your colleagues’ rankings, criticisms, and final conclusion. Plenty of “grist” for the DB mill!

For those of who tempted at the outset to argue that you’re not “experts,” let me quickly disabuse you of that notion. All of us in our tangled democracy must examine critically what’s going on. The irony is that our predictions might well be as good as those of any expert. After all, why if the future is unknown should an expert have an advantage? So save yourself some time by discarding any paragraph about what you don’t know. Or how you don’t like discussing things political. Or what have you. The purpose of this course is to help you little by little to be able to think about these issues with more clarity. Yes, of course, it will take some time. But the best way to learn is simply to do it.

To be eligible to receive full credit for Discussion Board 1, you must make your first post by 23:59 p.m. on Friday, May 14, and a minimum of two additional commentary posts by the beginning of our second class session on Monday, May 16.

What do I look for when I review your posts?

(i) Did you answer the questions posed in the prompt before the posted Sunday deadline. Failure to post before the deadline results in a deduction of from two to four 4 points from your overall DB score.

(ii) Did you provide at least two follow-up posts in response to the primary post of others before the beginning of our next class? Failure to do so results in a deduction of a minimum of two points per omitted post.

(iii) What evidence (from out- or inside the article, your own lives, and so on) did you mention when defending your answer?

(iii) Are your original arguments well thought out and explained?

(iv) Do your follow-up posts contribute meaningfully to the debate?

(v) How original are your posts? That is, to the extent possible, are you contributing new thoughts to the discussion? Or are you only mimicking what others have said? (Of course, some overlap is inevitable – and desirable. But do you try to add something new?) TO INCLUDE 2 PEER RESPONSE