“Socialism” in the Economic Report of the President of US

by Paul Cockshott and E. Ahmet Tonak

MR Online | April 23, 2019

Something unusual has just happened. The current Economic Report of the President (March 2019; henceforth Economic Report) has devoted one full chapter to attacking socialism, under the title “Markets versus Socialism.”[1] The only intellectually honest part of the Economic Report is the reason given for allocating no less than 45 pages to socialism:

[T]here was a time in American history when grand debates over the merits of competing economic systems were front and center, and the terms of the debates and characteristics of the competing views were widely known. It is clear that such a time may be returning. Detailed policy proposals from self-declared “socialists” are gaining support in Congress and are receiving significant public attention.