In letter, 370 economists among them 8 Nobel Prize winners say GOP nominee misleads public about jobs and growth, and promotes ‘magical thinking and conspiracy theories’
Hundreds of prominent US economists, among them several Nobel Prize winners, have warned that Republican nominee Donald Trump was a dangerous and destructive choice for president and “a unique danger” to the “prosperity of the country.”
In a letter released Tuesday, 370 economists, including eight winners of the Nobel Prize, offer 13 bullet-pointed reasons for not voting for the real estate mogul and former reality TV star come Election Day on November 8.
The economists urged voters to “choose a different candidate,” stopping short of endorsing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but warning that Trump was a “dangerous, destructive choice for the country,” who “misinforms the electorate, degrades trust in public institutions with conspiracy theories, and promotes willful delusion over
engagement with reality.”
“If elected, he poses a unique danger to the functioning of democratic and economic institutions, and to the prosperity of the country,” the text of the letter read.
Trump, the economists said, has misled and lied to the public about the job market, trade agreements, economic growth in the US, and taxation and has refused to listen to experts, instead promoting “magical thinking and conspiracy theories over sober assessments of feasible economic policy options.”
“His statements reveal a deep ignorance of economics and an inability to listen to credible experts,” they said, adding that Trump “repeats fake and misleading economic statistics, and pushes fallacies about the VAT and trade competitiveness.”
In response, one of Trump’s economic advisers told NPR that the letter was “an embarrassment to the corporate offshoring wing of the economist profession who continues to insist bad trade deals are good for America.”
“You don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to know Trump’s plan to cut taxes, reduce regulation, increase oil, gas, and clean coal production, and eliminate our trade deficit by increasing exports and reducing imports will significantly increase growth, boost wages, and generate trillions in new tax revenue,” said Peter Navarro.
As reported by The Times of Israel