American made

The economic recovery appears to be stalling as the coronavirus epidemic intensifies across the south and southwest. How did we get here? What are the policy failures that allow uncontrolled spread to resume? Why is there such a big testing backlog? And where do we go from here? Dr. Kavita Patel joins the panel to discuss.

Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has enjoyed higher public approval on his handling of the economy than on his overall job. Joe Biden released an economic plan last week that aims to dent the president’s advantage, in part by co-opting some of his themes about promoting manufacturing in the United States. He wants an expansive “buy American” program, big public spending on research and development to rely less on international supply chains, and a major public spending plan for the climate and environment. Does this mean that both Right and Left are ready to abandon neoliberal ideals of globalism? And is there a tradeoff between raising labor standards in the United States and raising labor standards in other countries? Biden’s climate action plan is a very progressive proposal — his moderate image might be helping him put forward very left proposals, but would that help him with actual policy making if he is president?

Finally, Dorian Warren argues the time is right for a third Reconstruction, a deep structural transformation of institutions in the United States to remedy inequities.