Economic policy of the Joe Biden administration

Biden signed two additional major pieces of longer-term economic legislation to boost semiconductor investments and public basic research, and expand green energy and health insurance subsidies.

[2] The first year of the Biden presidency (2021) saw strong growth in real GDP, wages, employment, stock market returns, and household net worth, coupled with an increase in inflation, as the economy recovered from the pandemic recession of 2020.

It's an economic vision where we make smart investments in America, educate and empower American workers, and promote competition to lower costs and help small businesses.

It authorized infrastructure investment of $1 trillion total over a decade for roads, bridges, airports, sea ports, rail, broadband, water, and public transit, among others.

[17][18] However, inflation significantly increased in 2021 relative to 2020 in the U.S. and Europe, attributed to factors such as strong consumer demand for goods (empowered by government relief programs), supply restrictions in port capacity and microchips, and lower 2020 prices.

[23] Despite the pandemic and inflation challenges, Bloomberg News reported in November 2021 that the S&P 500 stock market return of 37.4% in Biden's first year (measured from election day) was the highest of any modern president.

The law restricts some spending for two years, imposes new work requirements on older Americans receiving food aid, and reduces barriers to some infrastructure and energy projects.

[50] Biden has taken antitrust more seriously than presidents in recent memory, as seen by the work of Lina Khan at the FTC,[2] a historic court victory against Google's search monopoly, and a lawsuit to break-up Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

Many observers identified it to be the largest social welfare initiative undertaken by the federal government in decades, and economists predict low income households will benefit the most from the plan.

This bill includes important guardrails to ensure that companies receiving tax payer dollars invest in America and that union workers are building new manufacturing plants across the country.

[91][92] The Wall Street Journal reported that instead of negotiating access to Chinese markets for large American financial-service firms and pharmaceutical companies, the Biden administration focused on trade policies that boost exports or domestic jobs.

[116][117][118] Under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, student loan forgiveness was designated as tax-exempt income through the end of 2025,[119] and Biden proposed making the tax exemption permanent in March 2024.

[132] In December 2023, the Biden administration announced another $4.8 billion in student loan debt forgiveness for 80,000 borrowers due to further fixes to income-based repayments system of the PSLF program.

[133] In January 2024, the Department of Education also announced that it would forgive $4.9 billion in student loan debt for 73,600 borrowers due to further fixes to the income-based repayments system of the PSLF program.

[151] Elizabeth Warren's anti-cryptocurrency stance faced significant opposition within her party in 2024, as dozens of Democrats, including Chuck Schumer, supported efforts to overturn SEC guidelines restricting banks from holding digital assets.

[154][155] On June 2, the CFTC filed a lawsuit against Gemini alleging that the executive staff of the cryptocurrency exchange made false and misleading statements and omissions in communications with regulators about market manipulation of a bitcoin futures contract the company proposed offering in 2017.

[178] On February 18, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard gave a speech arguing in favor of a CBDC at a University of Chicago Booth School of Business forum on monetary policy in the United States.

[179][180] On May 19, House Republican Conference members on the Financial Services Committee sent a letter to Powell expressing concerns about CBDC and its potential effects on monetary policy and privacy rights.

[191] In April 2023, Federal Reserve Board Governor Michelle Bowman expressed skepticism for the need of a CBDC for the U.S. dollar in a speech at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business.

[197] On February 8, 2022, the U.S. Justice Department arrested businessman Ilya Lichtenstein and rapper Heather R. Morgan for attempting to launder and seized $3.6 billion of the $4.5 billion worth of bitcoin allegedly stolen in the 2016 Bitfinex hack,[198][199] while the U.S. Justice Department immediately filed a request with District of Columbia U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell to reverse the bail decision made by Southern New York U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Debra C. Freeman for Lichtenstein and Morgan due to flight risk concerns (with Lictenstein being jailed and Morgan remaining under house arrest with ankle bracelet monitoring instead of allowing both to go free on $5 million and $3 million bail respectively).

[202][203] On March 8, the owners and operators of the cryptocurrency companies EmpowerCoin, ECoinPlus, and Jet-Coin were indicted in the Eastern New York U.S. District Court for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering and for defrauding investors of $40 million.

[204] On March 18, the Southern New York U.S. District Court (with Senior Judge P. Kevin Castel presiding) convicted the operator of the World Sports Alliance, a cryptocurrency scam that offered a token called IGObit and claimed to be affiliated with the United Nations, of defrauding 60 investors of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[205] On March 24, the U.S. Justice Department charged two operators of a $1.1 million non-fungible token rug pull called "Frosties" with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

[206] On April 25, Alliance of American Football and former Minnesota Vikings minority owner Reggie Fowler plead guilty to charges of bank fraud in a $600 million crypto scheme.

[211] On June 1, a former product manager at OpenSea, a non-fungible token marketplace, was arrested by the Southern New York U.S. Attorney's Office on charges of wire fraud and money laundering in connection with an insider trading scheme that he was dismissed by the company for the previous September.

[212][213][214] On June 3, the Federal Trade Commission issued a report showing that approximately 46,000 investors lost more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency scams from January 2021 through March 2022 (with $329 million in the first quarter of 2022).

[218] On the same day, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) added Ruja Ignatova to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List for the $4 billion OneCoin Ponzi scheme.

[226] On August 6, the Biden administration released a press statement announcing support for the cryptocurrency tax reporting amendment to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act proposed by U.S.

[235][236][237] On March 10, 2022, the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the U.S. Labor Department issued a compliance assistance release warning financial services companies against including cryptocurrencies in 401(k)s and other retirement plans and to use extreme caution if doing so.

[240] On January 22, 2021, Biden issued Executive Order 14003 that removed Schedule F, overturning a number of Trump's policies that limited the collective bargaining power of federal unions.