No bailouts? Echoes of 2008 in Washington

IT WAS only a week ago that US President Joe Biden submitted his federal budget proposal that called for trillions of dollars in tax hikes on big corporations and the rich, while providing assistance to the struggling middle class and the poor. It was fair to say then that he seemed to place the interests of the investor class, or Wall Street, at the bottom of his economic agenda.

The Democratic president was trying to cast his administration and political party as allies of the people, as opposed to the elites. “For too long, working people have been breaking their necks,” he told an audience of labour union members in Philadelphia. “The economy’s left them behind – working people like you – while those at the top get away with everything.”

“I’m president because of you guys,” he stressed.