The Economic Cost of Populism

So we're in the midst of a government shutdown.

There's, like, this raging debate going on inside the Democratic Party about whether the shutdown was a good idea, and if it was, why to do it.

And I think, like, that debate, it boils down to Democrats disagreeing with one another, one, about among those who favor the shutdown, whether the right way to make an argument against the Trump administration's kind of populist agenda is to argue about pocketbook issues, or whether they should have instead made the shutdown about democracy issues.

The Congress and the administration want to not renew a policy that, that is keeping, um, health premiums down, et cetera.

And so that, that the way ...

So this is a debate about whether the way you argue against a populist is about us against them, elites against, elites against the people, uh, let's get back to, you know, regular constitutional order kind of issues, or whether it's about economic issues.

And why is it that populists appeal to voters? Is it really about the economy, or is it really about this sort of we don't like the elite order and let's, let's fight against that? And then two, based on that theory, what might be the best way to counter it?

Well, you would hope that Democrats and Republicans in Congress would be thinking about what policies are best for the country and whether it's what the federal budget should look like and whether it's good to shut down the government and so forth.

Of course, they're naturally gonna think about these kinds of political strategy questions as well.

I think probably neither party in Congress is particularly, particularly, uh, popular among regular voters right now.

But Viola, you spoke with somebody who has something to say about this, at least they, they have something to say about, uh, populist leaders.

Who are populist leaders? Are they successful? Why are they successful, and what effects are they having on the long-run economy?