For Bloomberg
Rising interest rates and market jitters are bringing out worries about what the next recession might look like. It really might be different this time, because of changes in politics and media since the last recession. President Donald Trump’s recent comments criticizing the Federal Reserve are just the start of what we could expect.
The priority of the American political response to the financial crisis of 2008, under both the Bush and Obama administrations, was focused primarily on stabilizing banks and the financial system. Soon after, the movement known as the Tea Party gained prominence, in part as a reaction against this.
A lot has changed since then. Social media has changed American political culture. Coverage of the 2008 financial crisis was fairly top-down, driven by mainstream news organizations and financial leaders, rather than populists and the outrage culture that has become pervasive on social media since then. My Bloomberg Opinion colleague Tyler Cowen has argued that extreme rhetoric like Trump’s attacks on the Fed will outlast this president.
Already, in the wake of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, it’s not uncommon to hear calls from the left seeking radical changes to…
