It is true that the rhetoric is different and there are some important differences, however and in the short time that Joe Biden is in the White House, we have already realized that there are also several similarities between the policy of the current president and Trump. Right from one of the central themes of the previous president’s mandate, the trade war, since Biden had not yet taken office and his treasury secretary and former FED president, Janet Yellen, made it very clear that the climate between the two largest world economies would not improve overnight. In reality, rhetoric and modus operandi may be different, with the current administration preferring a clash with China within a movement that includes US allies, but the demands are the same, that is, to prevent unfair economic competition from China, through illegal state subsidies to companies, as well as technology theft to US companies, such as the much talked about cases of forced technology transfer. Themes that Biden has also made clear that he intends to continue fighting, using all means at his disposal.
Photo by C Drying.
Another similarity between the policies of Biden and Trump, is related to the well-known “Make America Great Again”. Now Biden does not use that term, however his intention to promote products made in USA has already been known, and now it remains to be seen how far he will go in this claim. There will certainly be a point at which the two presidencies will be different, Trump has lowered taxes while his successor will raise rates, but with a nuance, is that he will have a gigantic stimulus package to offset the negative effects of this cost increase, which is why the market is not concerned with this change in fiscal policy. Finally, at the level of regulation and although Biden and the Democratic party made a lot of noise about a period of more regulation, namely in the sectors of health and technology, the truth is that in the end it is difficult for all Democratic senators in Congress to want to align with a strategy that will confront the great technologies, which already today has enormous power to manipulate public opinion, in addition to enjoying a high popularity with the population. It is that in two years there will be elections for Congress and Republicans would easily take advantage of this cleavage between consumers and politicians, to try to win back the majority lost in the January elections, when Democrats won the two decisive seats in the Senate.
