Only Harris will deliver shared prosperity

WHICH US presidential candidate – Kamala Harris or Donald Trump – is proposing economic policies that are more likely to generate shared prosperity and strengthen America’s national security? I recently joined 22 other Nobel laureate economists in signing an open letter with a simple answer: Vice-President Harris. Only Harris has a coherent programme of encouraging science, making it easier to commercialise innovations, and funding new business in all parts of the country.

In contrast, while Trump claims to speak for people who feel that they have been left behind by globalisation, his signature policy – much higher tariffs – would hamper innovation and impede the creation of good new jobs. Extreme protectionism has been tried many times in the modern world, and it always proves disappointing and incites debilitating responses from other countries.

If Trump follows through on higher tariffs, the prices for goods consumed by lower-income people – including his supporters – would rise dramatically. In the best case, his words are empty and worthless. But any president has the power to start a global trade war with America’s European and other trusted trading partners, which would be disastrous for domestic prosperity and national security.