HASFollowing the subprime crisis of 2007-2008, popular anger against growing social inequalities in the United States was expressed both on the right, with the reactionary agitation of the Tea Parties, and on the left, with the protests student of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Arriving in power in January 2021, fifteen days after an unprecedented assault by Donald Trump’s supporters against the Capitol, Joe Biden made it his mission to give the American middle classes the means for social advancement, in order to remove all reason to fall for their populist temptations.
His administration has thus initiated a radical change in economic policy, the main element of which is the return of an interventionist state. As his advisor Jake Sullivan unambiguously announced in a article published in Foreign Policy in February 2020 calling to overcome neoliberalism: “America needs a new economic philosophy. »
This new policy combines several major laws passed in 2021 and 2022: the American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Added to this are a number of executive actions taken since then. Presented in summary form in the White House report “Bidenomics Is Working”, published on June 28, “Bidenomics” initially continued the post-Covid-19 economic recovery begun by Trump in the spring of 2020. They then initiated a vast upgrade of the country’s infrastructure, launched an ecological transition centered on the transition to electric cars, and organized massive support for research and development, favoring the development of semi-electric vehicles. -drivers.
Crazy public debt
In continuity with Trump, “Bidenomics” also reinforces a completely assumed protectionism, aimed at bringing industrial jobs back to the United States and hindering technological competition from China. Other markers of a left-wing economic policy are also present, such as support for unions, very clear this fall with the strike of employees in the automobile industry, and the fight against the monopolies exercised by the giants of the tech (lawsuits against Google and Amazon began in September).
As the 2024 presidential campaign is launched, Biden’s choices and economic results are the subject of disputes from very different sources. The leaders of the left of the Democratic Party, first of all, are discreet about their criticisms, even if they regret the unfinished reforms on the reduction of student debt and the establishment of a more equalizing tax system. For their part, Trumpist elected officials attack the administration in all directions, but in reality remain in agreement with the principle of a strong and protectionist state.
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