Assume, for purposes of argument, that the combination of loose monetary policy and the Biden fiscal and regulatory agendas leads to a significant increase in wages for working people and a sharp decline in the real estate, stock, and bond markets. What would that mean for our politics?
You can break that down into three questions:
- How do business owners react?
- How do professional, middle class people react?
- How do workers react?
The answer to #1 is obvious: they will vote for the GOP. That was always likely in any event. #2 and #3 are tougher questions. My guess is that the culture wars are so strongly embedded in our collective DNA that the second group would continue to vote Democratic in spite of their financial losses, and that the third group would continue to vote for the GOP in spite of their gains.
Will we find out? I honestly don’t know, but it is certainly possible.