The Biden administration has made it a point to focus on investing in the middle class—even when considering foreign policy and trade. The White House has poured money into initiatives such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act to encourage domestic production and job creation. As a member of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist of his Invest in America Cabinet, Heather Boushey is one of the primary intellectual architects of the U.S. approach to inequality, growth, and job creation.
Is Washington’s turn toward industrial policy working as planned?
Boushey joined FP’s Ravi Agrawal for a wide-ranging discussion on the U.S. economy.
Boushey refutes critiques that Bidenomics is trying to do too much by tying infrastructure investments to childcare and workers rights, saying instead that it is offering U.S. companies best-in-class practices. For the full back and forth between Biden’s chief economic advisor and FP Live host Ravi Agrawal, watch the interview.
Watch Boushey, U.S. President Joe Biden’s chief economic advisor, defend the CHIPS and Science Act against the criticism that it is encouraging protectionism.
Biden’s chief economist says that the United States is not looking to stop trade with China but rethinking how U.S. trade policies could benefit American workers.
Heather Boushey
Member, Council of Economic Advisers and Chief Economist, Investing in America Cabinet
Heather Boushey is a member of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist of the White House’s Invest in America Cabinet. She is also a co-founder of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, where she was president and CEO from 2013 to 2020. Previously, Boushey was the chief economist for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 transition team and an economist at the Center for American Progress, the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and the Economic Policy Institute. She is the author of Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It and Finding Time: The Economics of Work-Life Conflict.
Host
Ravi Agrawal
Editor in chief, Foreign Policy
Ravi Agrawal is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy, the host of FP Live, and a regular world affairs analyst on TV and radio. Before joining FP in 2018, Agrawal worked at CNN for more than a decade in full-time roles spanning three continents, including as the network’s New Delhi bureau chief and correspondent. He is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy.
