What will be Chris Christie’s presidential economic agenda? Here’s a possible sneak peek

[Valin]

AEIdeas:

James Pethokoukis

December 23, 2013

 

 

Robert Grady is a managing director at private-equity firm Cheyenne Capital Fund. He is also chairman of the New Jersey State Investment Council and chief economic adviser to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a fellow who possibly even likely will run for the Republican Partys 2016 presidential nomination. Now Christie hasnt spoken a whole lot on national economic issues. So anyone looking for clues for what Christienomics might look like should read carefully Gradys commentary in The Wall Street Journal today.

 

In the piece Grady completely rejects the economic thesis at the core of Obamanomics and todays Democratic Party: that the three-decade, pro-market tilt in US economy policy (1) benefited only a sliver of American families and (2) the resulting inequality and wage stagnation is a corrosive force in American society. Grady does not buy President Obamas claim that a dangerous and growing inequality and lack of upward mobility is the defining challenge of our time.

 

As one bit of evidence, Grady cites a 2011 study, The Mismeasure of Inequality, by Kip Hagopian and Lee Ohanian that points out how oft-cited measures of inequality often ignore how Americas progressive tax code and government safety net affect income growth and distribution. In the study, Hagopian and Ohanian claim that using a more comprehensive income definition shows income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, actually declined a bit from 1993 and 2009. In addition, Grady also points to a US Treasury study showing considerable income mobility over recent decades.

 

(Snip)