Chris Lydon Open Source Radio: <http://www.radioopensource.org/barney-franks-grand-bargain/> Barney Frank's Grand Bargain
Barney Frank wants to make a deal... a Congressionally-mediated "Grand Bargain" between economic populists and free traders. The populists get federal subsidies for health care, an increase in the minimum wage, more freedom to create unions and better access to college loans. The free traders get, well, free trade.
Health care and free trade have long been debated as unrelated subjects, but like Lyndon Johnson... Frank is attempting the impossible. He accepts that tariff-free borders are crucial to long-term economic growth, and that long-term economic growth is, in fact, good for everyone.
At the same time, he points out that economic dislocation is particularly hard on the ones being dislocated, and that perhaps a part of what voted the Democrats in this year is a general sense that even if the economy is doing well right now, we the people are not.
Is such a bargain even possible? Who has to give up what? Is there a such thing as a win-win in American politics?
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On the Radio: mp3 files:
KQED | Programs A-Z: Forum: Home: Wed, Dec 13, 2006 -- 9:00 AM:
Interest Rate Update -- Forum discusses the impact of the Federal Reserve's decision to leave interest rates unchanged.
Guests include:
- Brad De Long, professor of economics at UC Berkeley and research assistant at the National Bureau of Economic Research;
- John Karevoll, analyst at Data Quick Information Systems, a nationwide real estate information service;
- Adam Posen, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and former economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Host: with Michael Krasny
