Turn left for sustainable growth, social justice

NEW YORK - Both the left and the right say they stand for economic growth. So should voters trying to decide between the two simply look at it as a matter of choosing alternative management teams? If only matters were so easy!

Part of the problem concerns the role of luck. America's economy was blessed in the 1990s with low energy prices, a high pace of innovation, and a China increasingly offering high-quality goods at decreasing prices, all of which combined to produce low inflation and rapid growth. Former President Bill Clinton and then-Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan deserve little credit for this - though, to be sure, bad policies could have messed things up. By contrast, the problems faced today - high energy and food prices and a crumbling financial system - have, to a large extent, been brought about by bad policies.

There are, indeed, big differences in growth strategies, which make different outcomes highly likely. The first difference concerns how growth itself is conceived. Growth is not just a matter of increasing GDP. It must be sustainable: growth based on environmental degradation, a debt-financed consumption binge, or the exploitation of scarce natural resources, without reinvesting the proceeds, is not sustainable.