Biden shows that only moderates can govern from the left

It was once a number so exotic as to have no agreed definition. It is now the threshold below which Joe Biden hardly bothers to trifle. Among the weirder legacies of the coronavirus pandemic is the overnight normalisation of “trillion”.

The US president’s $1.9tn of fiscal relief itself topped-up last year’s combined $3.1tn in aid. Even the $2tn he wants for a building spree is just the first half of an infrastructure plan that covers the decade. The second, which he will tout this spring, is expected to weigh in once more...