“The Making of the Mother of All Economic Booms.”

That’s how mathematician turned physicist turned blogger Anusar Farooqui – who researches and thinks deeply about some of the most complex systems shaping our world today – has described the Biden administration’s economic approach. 

Farooqui argues that President Biden is making a break with the last 45 years of neoliberalism – and that break is only more profound when you consider how “mainstream” Biden was for the duration of his Senate career. It’s this break that could create the biggest economic boom since the ‘60s – creating the kind of broad-based growth to transform both the economy and our political approach to economic issues. 

Here’s how Farooqui thinks we got here: the absolute failure of trickle-down economics. The 40 years of neoliberal economic constraints, in the form of deregulation and tax cuts, have taken power away from the sectors that actually produce things – thereby hamstringing the growth of the very same middle class that fueled that productivity. And, quite frankly, it's no surprise.

Instead, neoliberalism created a market for corporate control – one where private equity firms, with unfettered financial might, could force companies to move away from investment in long-term productivity growth and toward a short-term model of borrowing money from the bond market or doing stock buybacks. Thus, the sole purpose of large companies became a devotion to increasing shareholder value. It’s been devastating for working class families. In fact, last week we learned that the typical worker is missing an extra $10/hour - real wages they’ve lost because of neoliberal economic policies.

And now, Joe Biden is giving Democrats something to fight with:

“There’s a broad consensus of economists left, right and center, and they agree what I’m proposing will create millions of jobs and generate historic economic growth. These are among the highest-value investments we can make as a nation.” – President Biden

This represents the proper investment that the middle of our economy has been lacking for decades – infrastructure, child care, a green economy – funded by raising the overall corporate tax rate and increasing the tax on wealth from capital gains. These are exactly the sort of priorities that will ensure the economy grows from the bottom up and middle out. If policies like these were in place before the pandemic, 650 billionaires wouldn't have increased their wealth by more than $1 trillion in the middle of a pandemic all while 8 million more people during the same time period are now considered poor. And we all know that none of that $1 trillion in wealth amassed by the richest of the rich trickled down to those 8 million people. 

Trickle-down economics has consistently failed for decades, and now it's on its last legs. We can replace it, once and for all, with real plans that will grow our economy from the bottom up and middle out. But we need a vast majority of elected officials to commit to walking away from trickle-down economics for good. So we’ve put together a petition to Congress asking them to do just that, but we don’t have your name on it yet.

Sign our petition now urging Congress to invest in the middle class and put an end to trickle-down economics! We need 3,000 signatures before midnight tonight, so please add your name right now.

Thank you,

Paul