The editor in chief of the Economist ripped presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D., Mass.) economic plans, saying "there's quite a lot to be worried about" in her proposed reforms.
Zanny Minton Beddoes described Warren's plans for remaking the American economy as "breathtakingly ambitious" but warned the reforms would have harmful, unintended consequences.
"On balance, when you look at it, I actually think that many of her specific proposals—there are some that make a lot of sense, but many of them, when taken together, would give a shock to the U.S. economy that on balance would be not good for the U.S. economy," Beddoes said during a Friday appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe.
Beddoes argued that two philosophies underpin Warren's approach to the economy: "enormous faith in government regulation" and a "punitive dislike" of business. But Beddoes expressed doubt that Warren's wealth tax and aggressive regulations would work in practice.
"It's not just how she pays for it, it's the unintended consequences of all of this re-regulation that she's planning," Beddoes said. "They sound attractive: You are helping workers, you are shifting the balance of power back to workers. That's a great idea. But the way she is going about doing it will have knock-on consequences."
Steven Rattner, a former adviser to the Obama administration, agreed with Beddoes's analysis, drawing attention to her point that several European countries had to repeal their wealth taxes because they were not successful.
"Clearly the rich have to pay more, but as you just said, the wealth tax is not the way to go about it," Rattner told Beddoes. "When you said this was 'not good' for the American economy, I don't know if that was a bit of British understatement or not, but I would say it would be disastrous for the American economy."
"[Warren] says she's a capitalist, but she's not," Rattner added. "She is really a democratic socialist in some ways, and she wants to fundamentally change the role of an American company, how an American company is governed, what it's supposed to do, in ways that I think would be disastrous."
The Economist's most recent cover story concerned Warren's plans to reshape American capitalism "for better or worse." Warren has come under fire for promising massive expansions of government spending without specifying funding sources. She is set to release a plan in the coming weeks explaining how she will fund her Medicare for All proposal.