There’s been a lot going on lately in America. In particular lot of bad things have been happening, and the news is filled with these bad things. So I was delighted to read a short article by Noah Smith (@Noahpinion) on “13 Ways to Strengthen America’s Economy”. It wasn’t bashing anybody or raging about how f#*ked we are here in America. Instead, it was an article that put forth 13 ideas that could (or could not depending on your view) move this country in a positive economic direction to discuss and debate. Thanks Noah. You can find it here.

Stand Outs from The List

No. 1: Universal Healthcare No. 8: Stronger antitrust enforcement No. 9: More research funding No. 11: Child Care Support No. 13: Federal housing for the homeless

I think the whole list is pretty good and he gives a rational for each in his article, I highly recommend reading it.

One Thing to Add

I would have added at least one item to his list: Campaign Finance Reform. It seems that in order to have a functioning economy in a democracy, the people have to trust that their politicians are representing their best interests. Right now, in a America you are seeing the result of our political distrust with the election of Donald Trump. Right or wrong, Trump would never have gotten elected if people had not lost faith in their political system in America. Ezra Klein had a good discussion with Zephyr Treachot on the subject and they discuss in detail the problem and some very interesting solutions.

Comments Debate

In a closeout statement, Noah states:

This list of policies is eclectic. It draws on ideas from multiple ideologies, from social democracy to free-market neoliberalism to industrialism.

One of the comments argued about Noah’s definition of liberalism and how it was wrong. Given, I’m not an economist, I thought it would be good to define it here for myself and you. It is not very intuitive and I think many will find it means the opposite of what they think it means.

Neoliberalism: refers primarily to the 20th-century resurgence of 19th-century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism. These include economic liberalization policies such as privatization, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society. (from Wikipedia)