Will US voters be swayed by 21 Nobel laureates and senator Bernie Sanders?

The US presidential election on 5 November is too close to call, suggests almost every opinion poll, both the credible and the less credible. The “most consequential election” in recent times for not just the US but a major part of the world, could dramatically alter the geopolitical balance of power, though most American voters are rightly concerned with the domestic policies of the two presidential hopefuls. With the US in decline, it is economic policy which is expected to sway undecided voters in the next three days.

Nobody, however, can predict if voters are going to be swayed by dire warnings issued by economists and the 82-year-old senator Bernie Sanders. As many as 400 US economists — including 23 Nobel Prize winners — and administrators endorsed Kamala Harris last month.

“The choice in this election is clear: between failed trickle-down economic policies that benefit the few and economic policies that provide opportunity for all,” the endorsement document read. “It is a choice between inequity, economic injustice, and uncertainty with Donald Trump or prosperity, opportunity, and stability with Kamala Harris, a choice between the past and the future.”

“While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we believe that, overall, Harris’ economic agenda will improve our nation’s health, investment, sustainability, resilience, employment opportunities, and fairness and be vastly superior to the counterproductive economic agenda of Donald Trump,” the economists wrote, according to a report by CNN.

On 2 November, Business Standard published a Bloomberg opinion piece by Kathryn Anne Edwards under the headline, '23 Nobel Laureates Cannot Be Wrong About Trump'. The author points out that Trump’s agenda includes ending the independence of the Federal Reserve, the central bank, and empower the President to fix interest rates.

Trump also plans to impose a 20 per cent increase in tariff on all imports, and even higher rates on import of cars from China and Mexico. This, the economists point out, will not only increase prices of most products for Americans, but also lead to retaliatory tariff by other countries, thus restricting exports by the US.

Similarly, Trump has promised the largest mass deportation of immigrants in the history of the United States. While illegal immigrants are an emotive hot button issue in the election, a study by Brooklyn Institute pointed out that higher than expected immigration had led to an increase in demand for both goods and services as well as for workers, thus creating jobs. It has benefitted the US economy, the study suggested. Trump’s policies will also increase the federal deficit, estimated to be twice as high as the policies unveiled by Kamala Harris.  

Meanwhile, in a series of video appeals, Sanders, the longest serving ‘independent’ in the US Congress, has called for the defeat of Trump.

“Donald Trump's plan to eliminate all income taxes is insane economics. It will hurt desperately poor people and further enrich the very wealthy. That's why the billionaires who are pouring tens of millions of dollars into his campaign are so excited about it,” said Sanders in one of the videos.

Trump, Sanders pointed out, believes climate change is a hoax that originated in China, is averse to increasing minimum wages and overtime payments, and is against allowing workers to form unions to fight for their rights.

While on the campaign trail, the Republican hopeful famously visited a McDonald's outlet, interacted with workers and delivered burgers to drive-in customers. However, Sanders said sarcastically, asked by a reporter if he favoured an increase in minimum wages, Trump evaded the question and said McDonald's workers were "great".

The federal minimum wage in the US, the senator says, is a scandalous USD 7.25 per hour, while millions of workers receive marginally higher wages of USD 9, 10 and 11 per hour. Harris proposes to increase the federal minimum wage to USD 15 an hour, waive off medical debts, build millions of affordable housing units, and increase competition and ensure equal opportunity.

“In the richest country in the history of the world, if you work 40 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty. Donald Trump disagrees,” quips the senator.