Stone Inequality & Social Policy Seminar: Heather Boushey

Middle Out Economics: Where Do We Go From Here?

Heather Boushey, Senior Research Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School

Abstract: For four years, we abandoned trickle-down economics. Economic policy decisions were made with a different framework, redefining the proper role of government in markets and resetting the relationship between federal and state and local governments. We made historic investments toward one clear goal: grow the economy by strengthening and broadening the middle class. Reversing 50 years of rising economic inequality and political polarization was never going to be easy. It required a marked shift away from the market fundamentalism that has plagued Western democracies. We had to both put in place a new middle out economic agenda and demonstrate to everyday Americans how these investments would improve their everyday lives and lead to economic security. It turned out that we achieved the former, but not the latter. 

We now stand at a crossroads. Do we go back to a market fundamentalist approach that we know will underperform for Americans? Do we move further toward authoritarianism and embrace oligopolistic capitalism more than we already are during the second Trump administration? Neither of these will solve the problems that have accumulated in our country over the last half century. What we needed in 2020, what the Biden administration addressed, and what we need now, is to break this logjam. In this talk, I’ll illustrate what I’ve learned about economics in the real world—at the White House, on the road, and as new developments continue to break—I debunk old dogma and map out the necessary principles to deliver on our future, which sets the table for a forward-looking plan. 

Heather Boushey is one of the nation’s most influential voices on economic policy and focuses on the intersection between economic inequality, growth, and public policy. She served in the Biden administration as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist to the President’s Invest in America Cabinet. She is currently a senior research fellow at the Reimagining the Economy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School. Boushey co-founded and served as the President & CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Her book, Unbound: How Economic Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It, which was called “outstanding” and “piercing” by reviewers, was on the Financial Times list of best economics books of 2019.