Twenty-three Nobel Prize-winning economists signed a letter that calls Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic agenda “vastly superior” to the plans laid out by her opponent, Donald Trump, who is currently awaiting sentencing on 34 felonies connected to business fraud.
Comprising more than half of the living US recipients of the Nobel Prize--including two of the three most recent recipients--the endorsement marks the second major time a group of Nobel laureates has commented on the current campaign. The first time was in June when President Joe Biden was still in the race; 15 economists wrote a similar letter saying his economic agenda was also “vastly superior.” Trump dismissed the group’s letter at the time, and his campaign slammed those who signed on as “worthless out of touch” economists.
The newly expanded group includes two of the three most recent Nobel laureates, Simon Johnson and Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Led by Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor and 2001 winner of the prize, the group's letter lays out exactly why the economists felt they needed to make a public statement on the election, now less than two weeks away.
The letter highlights Trump's lack of understanding of tariffs and how he would further damage the American economy."Among the most important determinants of economic success are the rule of law and economic and political certainty, and Trump threatens all of these,” the economists write.
“While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we believe that, overall, Harris’ economic agenda will improve our nation’s health, investment, sustainability, resilience, employment opportunities, and fairness and be vastly superior to the counterproductive economic agenda of Donald Trump."