Economics Nobel Winner Oliver Hart Says ‘Meh’ to Donald Trump Budget Plan
Image by Getty Images
President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to increase spending on infrastructure while cutting taxes would endanger public finances, Economics Nobel laureate Oliver Hart said on Wednesday.
With much infrastructure in the United States in bad shape, increased spending could be good even if the details in Trump’s plans were “not so impressive,” he said.
“But then also reducing taxes, I mean that is going to lead to all sorts of budgetary problems in the future,” Hart told a news conference in Stockholm, along with the other winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, Bengt Holmstrom.
Hart and Holmstrom are due to receive the prize at a ceremony in Stockholm on Saturday.
Hart also criticized the idea of tearing up trade agreements and said reducing taxes on the rich was contrary to his belief of what was needed.
“I would be in favor of actually increasing the tax burden on the wealthy,” he said, adding it was very hard to know what Trump will actually do when taking office.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
