Harris on the Economy

I am of course delighted that Kamala Harris bears the flag for the Democrats now. Though far from perfect (what human is not?), she is at least younger than Biden and therefore not too far along the cognitive decline slope that awaits most of us at some point in time in our future.

On the economy, unfortunately, she is hewing too closely to Biden's script, scapegoating corporations for price gouging and seemingly calling for some sort of government intervention to right every wrong called out by her campaign (admittedly I've only read a WSJ article on her economic agenda so their may be a skew to their reportage). Democrats too often lean in this direction, assuming that government intervention of one sort or another will be the best way to fix things. It's not always true. Sometimes it is, but often it's not. Overall we should be obsessing over which functions should be best financed and executed by the public sector and which by the private. That is one of the great Hegelian questions of modern human history. The answer won't be the same in all societies and places, but it will rhyme and resonate across cultures.

75% of the last 16 years have been under Democratic regimes. There is pent up demand for regulatory relief, which we see expressed by the stampede of companies moving from California to Texas. Not just Tweedledum Musk, others. Rather than squelch it, we should acknowledge it and try to work with it.

In picking Walz as veep, Harris has signaled to progressives that she is on board with them. Now she has room to tack back to the middle to engage moderates. She can and should do so with her economic program, not just because it's politically astute, but because it's correct.