Unsolicited Advice

The Grumpy Economist ^ | January 16, 2025 | John B. Cochrane

[karpov]

The Trump economic team is assembling and making plans. What advice might I give them? As I wait by the phone, here are a few thoughts.

The current agenda seems straightforward but limited: Extend the tax cuts, deport some immigrants, tariffs, some industrial policy.

My advice: Think much bigger. Yes, these will be a first year agenda, but also use that time to lay the ground work for transformational changes. What will be Trump’s legacy? Focus on changing how things get done, not just the policy answers which can get overturned. In many cases, just letting the weeds grow will work better than trying to reform dinosaurs.

We are at an inflection point. The progressive left is discredited. Voters consider the “elites” running the country for the last few decades to be completely incompetent. We look around and our public life looks like a hoarder’s house. A counter-revolutionary wave is sweeping the globe, from Javier Milei to Giorgia Meloni to Pierre Poilievre. This is potentially bigger than the Reagan-Thatcher revolution. But just where this wave will lead is still an open question. You can set that agenda.

Don’t underestimate Trump. Yes, he’s a “disrupter.” He will say and do things outside the tired constraints of the traditional small swings between parties. He will talk about buying Greenland!

Here’s an agenda. (Mostly, “read the last 10 years of Grumpy Economist,” but I distill.) In big philosophical terms, this is the “growth” “abundance” “efficiency” and “freedom” agenda. That contrasts with some on the right who long for a more protected life, and are willing to accept the stagnation that protected economies suffer, as evident in Europe and Latin America.

[Delta 21]

Hmmm

[Delta 21]

I dont think we are at an inflection point.
The Trump economic team have been planning for over 3 years.
Thanks for the advice but I think about 75-80% is off base to the left. But I dont hold that against you.

[eyeamok]

I would make sure all of our Federal Employees, including All Federal Judges,Supreme Court Justices,CONgress and their Staff... get the best damned Health Care America has to offer. That my friends is The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. There shall be no Taxpayer funds spent on Health Insurance for Non Military Federal Employee’s, they shall at their own expense Enroll in the Affordable Care ACt for their Primary Medical Care.

[TwelveOfTwenty]

I would only say what I said after Trump was elected in 2016, which is buy American.

We tried cheaper Chinese communist made stuff, and the results were a lost tax base, lost opportunities for our kids and Vets, trade deficits, and a crumbling infrastructure. All we got for it was lower prices (or so we were promised), but the loss of high paying jobs more than nullified that.

We have another chance, but President Trump can't do this on his own. We'd better not blow it this time, because we may not get another.