PODCAST: “Hexapodia” Is þe Key Insight XXVIII: Build Back Better!

Key Insights:* Yes, Americans are now in a selfish defensive crouch, but just wait 8 years—if we get a high-pressure economy for those years…* We are finally getting back to normal politics, in which we slag each other because some claim we can afford to spend $3.5 and others that we can only afford to spend $1.5 trillion. And that is a very good sign…* Hexapodia!References:* Zach Carter: Why Are Moderates Trying to Blow Up Biden’s Centrist Economic Plan? <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/22/opinion/biden-moderate-democrats.html>* Jonathan Cohn: Why Manchin & Democratic Leaders Might Not Be Quite So Far Apart: <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/manchin-build-back-better-tax-credits-prescription-drugs_n_6158c67ae4b099230d240578>* Todd Gitlin: Look What’s Inside The Bill, Please: the Details of the $3.5 Trillion Package <https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-big-bills-huge-consequences-20211005>* Robert Greenstein: Budget Rconciliation: Calling It a ‘$3.5 Trillion Spending Bill’ Isn’t Quite Right <https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/570487-budget-reconciliation-calling-it-a-35-trillion-spending-bill-isnt-quite>* Steven M. Teles, Samuel Hammond, & Daniel Takash: Cost-Disease Socialism <https://www.niskanencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Cost-Disease-Socialism.pdf>* David Cay Johnston: How $3 a Day Can Buy America a Rich Future <https://www.dcreport.org/2021/09/21/how-3-a-day-can-buy-america-a-rich-future/>* Robert Kuttner: How the Budget Deal Could Make the Child Tax Credit Permanent <https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/how-the-budget-deal-could-make-the-child-tax-credit-permanent/>* Adam Jentleson: ‘Sinema’s approval rating has tanked, going from net +13 to 0 since the beginning of the year. But surely someone will be along soon to explain how actually this is brilliant politics…* Jeet Heer: Dune Bugs +, of course:* Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep <https://books.google.com/books?id=fCCWWgZ7d6UC> Get full access to Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality at braddelong.substack.com/subscribe