Dr. Sharyn O’Halloran, Senior Vice Dean and Chief Academic Officer for the School of Professional Studies at Columbia University, recently briefed the United Nations’ Foreign Press Center, discussing the economy, trade relations, and the 2016 Presidential election.
As New York and the country is in the midst of primary season for the election, O’Halloran addressed the candidates’ stances on these subjects. A popular topic among the press corps in attendance was income inequality. O’Halloran says that the candidates are mostly falling along party lines but it’s difficult to say at this point which would lead to more or less income inequality.
“Would a Trump or Clinton presidency lead to more or less income inequality? If Donald Trump has identified, rightly so, the angst of this group and has become a voice of that group, will the policies that he is proposing ... lead to less inequality? Cutting trade will probably not necessarily lead to less inequality; it will just lead to a shrinking of the pie, not necessarily a redistribution of the pie. Lowering taxes, which really means less spending on infrastructure and all the other issues, [is] not clear.”
Read the entire transcript on the U.S. State Department website and learn more about the School of Professional Studies.
