Ex-bank regulator details ways hasty 'get-me-elected promises' can tank economy

03 October 2024

The United States' two main 2024 presidential nominees — Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump — have been vehemently attacking one another on the economy. Trump blames Harris and President Joe Biden for inflation, while Harris warns the higher tariffs Trump is proposing would be quite inflationary and cause consumers to pay much higher prices.

In an op-ed published by The Hill on October 3, author and former banking regulator Thomas P. Vartanian is critical of both candidates. And he emphasizes that hasty "get-me-elected promises" from presidential hopefuls can have negative economic consequences if the candidate is elected and follows through on them.

"If you were looking for some fiscal rationality in the 2024 presidential election," Vartanian laments, "you should be greatly disappointed. The opacity of financial matters makes it a most convenient subject for the creation of fanciful alternative universes that candidates can ride into office. Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are taking full advantage of that fact."

The former banking regulator continues, "Random populist giveaways such as grocery price controls, credit card rate caps, subsidies to stimulate housing and small businesses, U.S.-sponsored cryptocurrencies, rent control caps and increased trade tariffs are easy to promise when the beneficiaries are cheering wildly. After all, they always presume that someone else's pocket is being picked — that it won't affect them."

Vartanian points out, however, that many "get-me-elected promises never come to pass" because they "require the acquiescence of what is now a deeply dysfunctional Congress."

Vartanian goes on to argue that ill-advised promises of easy-to-obtain mortgages led to the financial meltdown of September 2008 and the Great Recession.

"Political promises that rely on voodoo economics and irrational financial principles are so ubiquitous this election cycle because the candidates must overcompensate after our leaders have so thoroughly abused the economy over the last several decades," Vartanian warns. "It makes our job as voters a tough one: We have to determine who offers the least irrational list of economic giveaways. Good luck."

Thomas P. Vartanian's full op-ed for The Hill is available at this link.

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