Bernie’s Economics may not be feasible but it is useful
Known as the institutionalists, they believed that institutions, more than market forces, determined the distribution of goods in a society. As a group, they were more united by what they disliked in conventional economics than by what they agreed on. But they agreed that there was huge opportunity to improve the human condition by transforming the institutions that made up our society. They generally wanted stronger labor unions and weaker corporations. They wanted the government to play a continuously active role in regulating what they saw as the predatory practices of business.
.. Over the last 75 years, the actual people designing Republican economic policies — figures like Martin Feldstein, Gregory Mankiw, Glenn Hubbard — have nearly all relied on Keynesian principles and models of the economy. Even Milton Friedman, the most effective critic from the Chicago school, experimented with Keynesian ideas early in his career, and his proposals that actually affected government policy (the Federal Reserve’s approach to inflation, the earned-income tax credit, automatic tax deduction from payrolls) fit neatly into a Keynesian mode of thinking.
.. I spoke with Warren Gunnels, Sanders’s policy director, and he told me that the senator doesn’t believe there is a trade-off to be made.
.. It will inspire such enthusiasm and determination that more people will work harder and invest more, and the country will easily generate the tax income to pay for it. Hence, Sanders’s plans won’t cost money; they’ll raise money.