The idea that the government should do everything in its power to make recessions brief and recoveries rapid sounds banal, but it’s a big difference from how policy was made in the first two decades of this century.A string of positive economic news — slowing inflation, an upward revision in gross domestic product, continued strength in the job market, signs of a nascent surge in factory construction — has the Biden administration going all out to define “Bidenomics” as the doctrine of our time.
As a basic exercise in credit-taking, it makes a lot of sense. The US has had the strongest GDP recovery from the pandemic of any developed country in the world, and though inflation remains above target, it is currently lower than what any peer country is experiencing. Anything the White House can do to call attention to those facts is smart. Also, the time is right for a big push on these points because inflation has fallen enough that wages have finally started to rise faster than prices.
