Kamala Harris’s cost-of-living plan will end in failure
She is the latest presidential candidate to embrace self-defeating economics
It is easy enough to understand what is motivating Kamala Harris’s economic strategy. Poll after poll demonstrates that many Americans consider the cost of living to be their main concern heading towards the presidential election in November, and Ms Harris is at a disadvantage, having served as vice-president during a time when inflation soared to a four-decade high. Rather than gloss over this ugly reality, she is trying to confront it. “Lower costs for American families” is the centrepiece of her economic agenda, a message she is likely to deliver again on August 22nd, after we go to press, in a speech to the Democratic National Convention.
Explore more
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Cutting costs, at great cost”
Finance & economics August 24th 2024
- Kamala Harris’s cost-of-living plan will end in failure
- America’s anti-price-gouging laws are too minor to be communist
- America’s recession signals are flashing red. Don’t believe them
- Why don’t women use artificial intelligence?
- Why investors are not buying Europe’s revival
- Investors should avoid a new generation of rip-off ETFs
- Artificial intelligence is losing hype
More from Finance & economics
China meets its official growth target. Not everyone is convinced
For one thing, 2024 saw the second-weakest rise in nominal GDP since the 1970s
Ethiopia gets a stockmarket. Now it just needs some firms to list
The country is no longer the most populous without a bourse
Are big cities overrated?
New economic research suggests so
Why catastrophe bonds are failing to cover disaster damage
The innovative form of insurance is reaching its limits
“The Traitors”, a reality TV show, offers a useful economics lesson
It is a finite, sequential, incomplete information game
Will Donald Trump unleash Wall Street?
Bankers have plenty of reason to be hopeful