Harvard: Democratic Control is the Reason for the Sluggish US Economy

According to a new study from The Harvard Business School, the strong partisan government and the fact that Americans don’t trust political leaders as some of the reasons attributing to the slow growth in the economy. 

“The U.S. political system was once the envy of many nations. Over the last two decades, however, it has become our greatest liability. Americans no longer trust their political leaders, and political polarization has increased dramatically. Americans are increasingly frustrated with the U.S. political system,” according to the Harvard titled “Problems Unsolved and a Nation Divided.” 

The report also recommends that the best solution is to make sure the American economy s competitive with the rest of the world.

“U.S. competitiveness has been eroding since well before the Great Recession. America’s economic challenges are structural, not cyclical. The weak recovery reflects the erosion of competitiveness, as well as the inability to take the steps necessary to address growing U.S. weaknesses,” writes the report.  

This study just shows it is time for things to change. “The federal government has made no meaningful progress on the critical policy steps to restore U.S. competitiveness in the last decade or more,” writes the report.  

For the past decade, the Democrats have had control and consistently have block proposals that would encourage economic growth and competitiveness.  

Investors.com points out eight plans to encourage an economic boost that were rejected by democrats including: to simplify the corporate tax code and lower the statutory rate, to move to a territorial tax system like all other leading nations, and to simplify and streamline regulation.

The Obama administration has stumped the growth of the nation, by not enacting any kind of corporate tax reform, by adding even more regulatory restrictions to businesses and by doubling the national debt.  

Clinton will just be an extension of Obama, while Trump’s economic plan mimics what both The Harvard Business School report and the past proposals above recommend to fix the economy.

“Trump wants exactly the kind of corporate tax reform the HBS report proposes and he wants to aggressively pursue domestic supplies of energy — the latter of which the HBS describes as “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change the nation’s economic and energy trajectory,” writes investors.com.” He has called for streamlining regulation, and while his anti-trade rhetoric is worrisome, he at least has promised to get tough on countries that cheat on trade.”