David Wessel, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, compares the candidates' records and campaign promises on taxes, spending, tariffs, housing and more. TV critic David Bianculli reviews Netflix's rom-com series Nobody Wants This. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Dave Davies.
In this incredibly close presidential election, voters repeatedly cite the economy as a leading issue.
And if ever there was a circumstance where we should have plenty of information about the candidates approaches, this is it.
Republican Donald Trump was president for four years ending in 2020, after which Democrats Joe Biden and the partys current candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, took the reins, a juxtaposition that should offer some basis for comparing the performance of the two tickets.
With that in mind, weve called on a respected economist to offer some perspectives on the economic records of the two administrations and on the presidential candidates campaign proposals for the countrys economic future.
Those proposals differ sharply on taxes, spending, tariffs, regulation, energy and industrial policy, and more.
Our guest is David Wessel, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution and director of their Hutchins center for Fiscal and Monetary Policy.
Wessell worked for 30 years at the Wall Street Journal.
He shared two Pulitzer prizes for journalism, one at the Wall Street Journal, another at the Boston Globe.
He's also written three books on economic issues.
David Wellsell, welcome back to Fresh Air.
We want to talk about the economic records of the Trump administration and the Biden Harris administration.
But, you know, I have to note that there are so many economic statistics that you can make an argument for almost anything.