2024 Election: What Trump and Harris's policies could mean for the economy

As the 2024 presidential election lies just three months away, Willett Advisors LLC Chairman and CEO Steven Rattner joins Market Domination to discuss the economic implications of both a potential Trump or Harris presidency.

As voters await an established economic platform from Vice President Kamala Harris, Rattner expects her to discuss the role price gouging plays in the overall issue of inflation in her speech at the Democratic National Convention. He adds, "I'd be a little surprised if she gets into the specifics of the corporate tax rate," especially as it is not slated to expire. Harris's economic agenda will likely be solidified by the end of the Convention, and Rattner would like her to propose more policies centered around middle- and working-class families, especially when it comes to housing:

"We need to do something about housing. We are not building nearly enough housing. Housing starts are higher under the Biden administration than under the Trump administration, but not nearly what they need to be to ease the affordability crisis. And of course, getting the mortgage rate down, which will happen as the Fed eases, will help on that front. So I think those are the kinds of areas where I think she's going to need to focus."

On the other hand, he explains, "I find the prospect of a Trump win, just looking at it purely on economics, pretty scary. We're talking about someone who wants to extend and increase the level of the Trump tax cuts without any proposals, that I've heard anyway, for curbing and spending, which means big increases in the deficit, which means pressure upward on interest rates, which is obviously bad for homeowners, bad for consumers, bad for everybody."

Rattner points to Trump's aggressive tariff agenda as a "hugely regressive form of tax" that will take a toll on the working class and aggrevate inflation. He adds, "There's nothing, frankly, that I've heard from the former president that would lead me to think that his economic policies would help inflation or help middle- or working-class families. And indeed, I've heard quite a bit to suggest that they would make them worse."