When trying to predict Joe Biden’s economic agenda, one must ask: Which Joe Biden are we talking about? If it’s the Biden who, in the primary, mocked young Bernie Sanders supporters as merely children who walk around with their heads down saying “Woe is me,” then a Biden presidency looks much like an extension of the Obama years. The operating logic of Obamaism toward younger radicals is simple: You’ll grow up, as we did.

But a new Biden has emerged, one who’s promised “the most progressive administration since FDR” and has no problem cynically using the economic destruction brought on by the coronavirus and state lockdowns as an opportunity to push a radical expansion of the welfare state. Biden has become rather impressionable for a 77-year-old. It’s hard to say whether this pivot is a product of self-convincing — that is, this period of history calls for an unabashedly left-wing president — or out of fear and desperation that he’s insufficiently exciting to garner enough youth turnout to defeat President Trump in November.