In this episode, we take a look back at the Biden administration and what its economic legacy will be. The administration got off to a remarkable and surprisingly progressive start with a nearly $2 trillion stimulus package in early 2021 that sent the US economy rocketing towards full employment and a strong recovery from the Covid downturn. It then turned its attention towards expanding social spending and tackling climate change, doing a sort of mini Green New Deal, with legislation that came to be known as Build Back Better. This was killed in late 2021 by conservative Democrat Joe Manchin.

What emerged from the ashes was a nationalistic industrial policy that has both re-shored manufacturing jobs and ratcheted up tensions with China. It promises to fight climate change through tax incentives for green industry and tariffs on Chinese goods. We have some concerns about this change in the Democrats’ policy orientation, and we dive into them on the pod.

Show Notes

Biden walking off into the Amazon rainforest

Kate Aronoff: “Why Bidenomics Failed to Win the White Working Class”

Adam Tooze: “Great Power Politics”

Andrew Elrod: “What Was Bidenomics?”

Conor’s 2023 piece for Current Affairs about the progressive side of Bidenomics

Jake Sullivan: “The New Old Democrats”

David Brooks: “Maybe Bernie Sanders Is Right”

New Yorker piece on Bidenomics: “Bidenomics Is Starting to Transform America. Why Has No One Noticed?”

Credits

The podcast’s theme music was made by our youngest brother Tate.

Cover art by Arthur Santoro.

Get full access to The History Onion at historyonion.substack.com/subscribe