Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees are coming fast and furious, and his pick for Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has a rather radical economic agenda in mind.
In her first public remarks since being named by Biden as his pick for heading the Treasury Department, Yellen made it clear that she would use the power of the Treasury to focus on addressing economic inequality and racial and gender disparities. Of course, Yellen, who has repeatedly been called a “deficit hawk” by the mainstream press, has no way to pay for these endeavors without printing money, a radical, potentially economic catastrophic course of action.
Yellen says she believes she has an “obligation to address deeper structural problems, inequality, stagnant wages, especially for workers who lack a college education. Communities that have seen industry disappear with no good jobs replacing lost ones. Racial disparities in pay, job opportunities, housing, food security, and small business lending that deny wealth building to communities of color. Gender disparities that keep women out of the workforce and keep our economy from running at full force.”
I wonder, is Yellen unaware that the Trump administration’s free-market policies created the best economy in the nation’s history, including record-low unemployment for women and minorities?
According to Yellen, “our collective pain as a nation, we will find collective purpose to control the pandemic and build our economy back better than before. To rebuild our infrastructure and create better jobs, to invest in our workforce, to advance racial equity and make sure that the economic recovery includes everyone. To address the climate crisis with American ingenuity and American jobs. Working together with the outstanding national security and foreign policy team you announced last week to help restore America’s global leadership. And above all, we share your belief in the American dream. Of a society, where each person, with effort, can rise to their potential and dream even bigger for their children. I pledge as treasury secretary to work every day towards rebuilding that dream for all Americans.”
Unfortunately, Yellen’s plan to continue deficit spending programs and pursue wealth redistribution policies will make it less likely that the United States will create a thriving post-pandemic economy, especially for those who are struggling to provide for their families.
There are many reasons that Yellen’s policies would in fact be detrimental to Americans, especially hardworking Americans who are just trying to get ahead. Throughout modern history, deficit spending has caused massive economic bubbles, such as the 2008 Great Recession. And printing trillions of dollars, which Yellen endorses, will inevitably cause inflation. The working class, the very group that Biden and Yellen claim to be trying to help, will be most severely impacted by inflation. Although Yellen might have the best of intentions, ironically, the policies and programs she seems wedded to will indeed harm those who she seeks to help most.
Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is the editorial director and a research fellow at The Heartland Institute, as well as a researcher and contributing editor at StoppingSocialism.com.
