The Election and the Economy

WSJ Opinion: Free Expression

Gerard Baker, Editor at Large, The Wall Street Journal

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 591 Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2024

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kamala Harris told the Democratic National Convention that she has plans for what she called an “opportunity economy.” But with little detail about what such a platform entails, except for promises to end so-called price gouging and raise taxes on companies and the better off, voters don’t seem to have a clear picture of what they will get if the Vice President wins in November. Meanwhile Donald Trump is pledging to extend and widen his tax cuts from 2017 that are due to expire next year, raise tariffs across the board and roll back regulation. So what might all this mean for a U.S. economy where inflation seems finally to be under control but growth may be slowing? On this episode of the Free Expression podcast, former World Bank President and Trump administration Treasury official David Malpass explains why a Harris administration would mean more government takeover of the private sector, why the world looks to China instead of the U.S. for economic leadership and what needs to be done to lift long term growth in the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Boardrooms love buzzwords.
0:01.9	AI, climate, resilience.
0:03.7	But what do they actually mean for CFOs and execs trying to survive the next earnings call?
0:08.3	That's where the pre-read comes in.
0:09.8	Real experts and real talk.
0:11.6	Subscribe to the pre-read, presented by Workiba.
0:17.1	From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.
0:23.6	Hello and welcome to Free Expression from the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal.
0:28.6	I'm Jerry Baker, editor at large of the journal. If you're not already subscribing to Free Expression, please do sign up at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you do you're listening.
0:35.6	This week, the election and the economy.
0:38.3	Kamala Harris continues to mainly avoid detailed scrutiny of any plans she may have for the presidency.
0:43.6	Donald Trump seems eager to talk about endorsements from political mavericks like Robert F. Kennedy
0:48.2	Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard. And the media, of course, obsesses about whether joy or fear
0:52.9	are the defining themes of this election.
0:55.0	You wouldn't know it from all that, but real issues await whoever is elected president in less than 10 weeks time.
1:01.0	Probably the most pressing is the economy.
1:03.0	Voters give the Biden-Harris administration poor marks for their handling of the economy of the last four years,
1:07.0	after a surge in prices, falls in real wages and steep interest rate hikes by the Federal
1:13.0	Reserve. But as the election draws to a climax, an alternative picture is beginning to emerge.
1:18.1	While prices remain much higher than they were four years ago and continue to rise,
1:22.4	the rate of inflation has come down and is now below 3%. The Fed looks set to cut interest rates starting next month,
1:29.1	and as at the same time we're getting evidence that the economy is actually slowing.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Gerard Baker, Editor at Large, The Wall Street Journal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Gerard Baker, Editor at Large, The Wall Street Journal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.