Thought Leader Thinking: Dr. Michael Busler
In Australia, there’s a saying that goes: “When Americans elect a president for themselves, they elect one for us too.” Of course, not only Australians are watching the American presidential election campaign with rapt attention. For many—including American economist and public policy analyst Dr. Michael Busler—the outcome will determine the sustainability of the United States as a superpower.
Dr. Busler teaches Finance at Stockton University and is an organizer for the World Association for Sustainable Development. His deep knowledge of economics and political philosophy makes him an ideal conversationalist on the topic of the ideological divides currently defining American discourse. That was the focus of our recent discussion with the esteemed professor.
Dr. Busler summarizes the current economic state of affairs in the United States incisively: “This year looked like it was going to be the best year from an economic growth standpoint that the US has had in two decades. Then, of course, the virus hit. By April, we had an annual growth rate drop of over 30% . Congress and the President got together and passed a massive stimulus package totaling nearly $3 trillion. So, with all that money going into the economy, it started on a V shaped recovery.
“To give you a little perspective, when the economy is doing well, we're typically adding 200,000 to 300,000 jobs in a month. The most we ever had was 1.6 million jobs in a month. And that was way back during the Reagan administration. In May, we added 2.8 million jobs, nearly doubling the previous record. In the month of June, we added 4.6 million jobs, almost doubling that record. We added millions more in July and August. Based on the number of people brought back for work, it looks like the recovery has been robust.”
Dr. Busler notes that the “bad thing” about this recovery is, clearly, the debt it has added to the American public. The debate now, then, is whether or not to increase that debt with another stimulus package or for states which have been slow to re-open to do so. Of course, this choice, like so many others, has become intensely politicized.
According to Dr. Busler, America’s economic fortunes are in the hands of political parties that have become much less centrist than they were in the past. In his view, that does not necessarily bode well.
“Maybe much of the problem we have politically today is, for whatever reason, each side seems to be staying away from the center. The Democratic Party wants to become very liberal and the Republican Party wants to come become very conservative. But history indicates that when we're in the middle, we tend to make the most progress. All of this is probably going to slow down economic growth and maybe have negative effects on sustainability.”
Still, Dr. Busler maintains his optimism. “I think that no matter what the problems are, somehow we're going to come together and figure out how to solve them. When it gets very severe, we seem to be able to come together for a common good. I think America will be able to move forward to continue to grow and prosper and be the good world neighbor that we've been.”