Sherle R. Schwenninger: All Publications, Events and Press

Andrés Martinez to Direct New America Foundation’s Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program

Communications — Wed, 07 May 2008 06:05:00 -0400

Washington, D.C. – The New America Foundation today announced that Andrés Martinez, former editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times, will become director of the Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program, which seeks to identify and support the next generation of American public policy scholars and writers.

New America provides financial, professional and institutional support for up to 35 fellows each year. Its fellows program seeks out individuals whose research and ideas promise to bring forward exceptionally promising new thinking about the most pressing issues facing the United States.

Mr. Martinez was the editorial page editor of the Los Angeles… more

Illusions and Delusions About the U.S. Economic Picture

Communications — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:20:00 -0400

A New America Event
04/02/2008 - 12:00pm

Former John Edwards campaign senior economic advisor and telecom executive Leo Hindery understands better than most the difference between the needs of Wall Street and the needs of average Americans on Main Street. Looking at the subprime crisis as a symptom of a long history of economic mismanagement, Leo Hindery will argue that recent calls to change the regulatory bureaucracy in Washington are at best a band-aid. Rather, the American economy needs a long-term strategy to build a new edge in tradable goods and services to rebuild our middle class with high-wage jobs and reduce our massive trade imbalances.

Leo Hindery has announced his support of Barack Obama’s campaign -- but he will be speaking on his own behalf and not that of any campaign. Economic writers and commentators Bruce Stokes and Sherle Schwenninger will offer reactions.

An MP3 audio recording of the 87-minute event can be downloaded below, while the video of the full event is viewable at right.

Democratizing Capital

Ron Tang — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:53:00 -0400

Below is a longer version of the article published in The Nation. For the version appearing in The Nation, please click here.

Historical analogies are never exact. Yet many of the choices we have before us today are similar to ones that an earlier generation of progressives faced as the 1932 election approached. As we do today, the progressives of the 20th century confronted a society beset by a huge gap between classes and an economy laid flat by the bursting of the speculative excesses of the previous decade. To be sure, our economy is nowhere near Depression levels… more

Sherle Schwenninger in CongressDaily | 'Balance of Payments'

Communications — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:37:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Balance of Payments (National Journal's CongressDaily, subscription only)

Recession is looming, but, for once, President Bush and congressional leaders are moving in the same direction and have adopted the mantra that a stimulus should be timely, targeted and temporary.

But, warns Sherle R. Schwenninger, head of the economic growth program at the Washington-based New America Foundation, "if you attempt to counter the downturn with just more supply-side and demand-side initiatives, all you will get is just another bubble. You need structural change." ...

Sherle Schwenninger in CQ Weekly | 'Congress' Role: Help Or Hinder'

Communications — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:13:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Congress' Role: Help Or Hinder (CQ Weekly)

"Giving the economy a temporary sugar high of trying to boost consumption will not sustain an economic growth path," said Sherle R. Schwenninger of the New America Foundation, a public policy think tank. "We see a longer-term program being required, which involves public infrastructure. It's more efficient and effective in stimulating both investment and demand and creating jobs." ...

Sherle Schwenninger in Las Vegas Sun | 'Fix the economy, but how?'

Communications — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:56:00 -0500

New America in the News:
Fix the economy, but how? (Las Vegas Sun)

As the partisan narratives emerge in Washington, Sherle Schwenninger at the New American Foundation, a Washington think tank, says they won’t work because the national downturn is more than a temporary blip. Schwenninger thinks the economy needs to be weaned from its dependence on consumer spending in favor of government infrastructure projects that could grow the economy. He is pushing to give cash to the states to modernize airports, fix roads or build electrical transmission lines, which Nevada needs to do to carry solar power across the region. ...

Sherle Schwenninger Quoted in NY Times | News Analysis on the Economy

Communications — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 10:18:00 -0500

New America in the News:
The Debate Over How and How Long - News Analysis on the Economy (New York Times)
“It would mean much more of the stimulus actually goes to creating jobs,” said Sherle R. Schwenninger, head of the economic growth program at the New America Foundation...

Sherle Schwenninger in Civil Engineering Magazine | 'The Infrastructure Crisis'

Communications — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:15:00 -0500

New America in the News:

The Infrastructure Crisis (Civil Engineering Magazine)

... The fact that the infrastructure has not been a national priority is evident from key economic data. From 1950 to 1970, for example, the United States devoted 3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to infrastructure spending; since 1980, however, spending on infrastructure has been cut by a third, to just 2 percent of GDP, notes Sherle R. Schwenninger, the New York City–based director of the economic growth program of the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank. The result has been a huge shortfall of needed investments, explains Schwenninger. ...

At present, infrastructure spending often gets crowded out by “other pressing expenditures that are more day to day” in the federal government’s annual budgetary fights, notes the New America Foundation’s Schwenninger, who wrote about the need for a capital budget in Ten Big Ideas for a New America, a report issued by that group in February 2007. But a capital budget would end these battles over distinguishing a capital expenditure from an operating expense and enable the nation to spread the costs of capital improvements over time rather than delay such investments to keep within annual budgetary limits, Schwenninger explains. more

J. Galbraith and Economic Growth Forum in Atlanta Journal Constitution

Communications — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:51:00 -0500

New America in the News:

The home foreclosure crisis slamming into the nation's neighborhoods is having the effect of about "one Hurricane Katrina per month," James K. Galbraith, an economist with the University of Texas at Austin, said Friday at a forum examining the credit crisis.

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005, nearly 275,000 Gulf Coast residents were forced to move into group shelters, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Economists who recently completed a study for the U.S. Conference of Mayors predicted the number of home foreclosures will hit 1.4 million in 2008.

Foreclosure is the legal process by which property may be sold by a lender to pay off a defaulting borrower's loan. Often, foreclosures drive down prices for entire neighborhoods as homes sit vacant.

When new buyers fail to purchase those empty houses, "the inventory doesn't go away," Galbraith said at the event sponsored by the New America Foundation, a research group. "The houses stay there — and they decay," hurting the value of even occupied homes around them.

This can compound the mortgage slump's economic damage. As home values decrease, Americans may no longer be able to get the home-equity loans that used to help them pay for cars, remodeling projects and more. "A slump in housing could have an effect on our ability to grow — for quite a long time to come," Galbraith said. ...

For more information, please follow this link. James Galbraith spoke at a forum organized by the Economic Growth Program and American Strategy Program with New America Foundation. More information about that forum can be found on the Events Calendar.

Whither the American Economy?

Communications — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:30:00 -0500

A New America Event
11/30/2007 - 8:30am

Responding to the damage caused by the slowdown in housing, the subprime mortgage crisis, and fears of a U.S. recession, the New America Foundation held a national policy forum on the need for a new era of public investment on Friday, November 30, 2007.

Despite the recent economic slowdown, New America Foundation board member Bernard L. Schwartz opened the conference with an optimistic message. The dynamism of the American economy, Schwartz argues, bolstered by robust public investment, can overcome present challenges. Schwartz and Economic Growth Program director Sherle Schwenninger outline a strategy for rebuilding the American economic engine in “Public Investment Works,” which appears in the fall issue of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.

Video of Schwartz's opening presentation is available at right. Videos of the other presentations and panels -- as well as presentation materials, the policy papers released at this event, and other details -- are included below.

Johnson Presentation

Panel 1: How Hard Will the Fall Be?

Lachman Presentation

Panel 2: Shaking
It Off?

Conference Papers

The Macroeconomic Considerations of a Public Investment Strategy
by James Galbraith
James Galbraith examines the depressing effects of the slowdown in housing, the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis, and the inter-connected problems of failing infrastructure and long-term climate change.

Back to Basics: A Pro-Growth Public Investment Strategy
by Joel Kotkin
Joel Kotkin argues that the era of asset price inflation—the housing and stock market bubbles—has masked a perilous hollowing out of public infrastructure, the key to sustained and equitable economic growth.

Conference Presentation Materials

Presentation Slides from Simon Johnson's Kickoff to Panel 1

Presentation Slides from Desmond Lachman's Kickoff to Panel 2

Participant Spotlight

Saviors of the Citi
by Zach Karabell, Wall Street Journal
November 30, 2007

"The recent announcement that Citibank received a cash infusion of $7.5 billion from Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund was greeted with a mixture of relief and bewilderment by the financial markets." read more (subscription required)

Time to Stand Up to Wall Street
By Steve Pearlstein, The Washington Post
October 31, 2007

"Remember all those stories about how the nose dive in financial markets was the first big test for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the academic economist who was still developing his feel for the interplay between the central bank and Wall Street?" read more

Undebated Challenges

Articles — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:35:00 -0500

The most damaging part of the Bush foreign policy legacy is not the precipitous decline in American power and influence brought about by the disastrous Iraq occupation. It is the way the Administration’s "war on terror" and its neoimperial project in the Middle East have distorted our vision of the world.

They magnify out of all proportion what should at worst be minor threats to our national security and ignore much larger developments, such as the extraordinary economic rise of China and India, which are having a much more profound effect on the American way of life.

Just how distorted our… more

Public Investment Works

Articles — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 10:16:00 -0400

An important debate over fiscal policy is beginning to take place within the Democratic Party. For the past 15 years, deficit hawks within the party have argued that addressing America’s fiscal challenges should take priority over our public investment needs, suggesting that, in effect, we cannot afford to increase public investment until we have reduced the federal deficit.

But there is an alternate view, holding that the deficit hawk position neither accurately reflects America’s true economic strength nor represents good policy in light of the very significant changes that have occurred in the economy over the past decade… more

New America in The Washington Post on Public Infrastructure

Communications — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:21:00 -0400

New America in the News:

New America's report on infrastructure funding, highlighted in this Washington Post editorial, was written by Sherle R. Schwenniger, director of the Economic Growth Program, and is part of Ten Big Ideas for a New America. To view Schwenninger's proposal online, please click here.

The cause of the deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis on Aug. 1 is still unknown. But since the span plunged into the Mississippi River, the question of how to finance a generation's worth of needed infrastructure repairs and new construction for the nation has begun to get the attention it deserves.
According to a recent report by the New America Foundation, the United States spent 3 percent of its gross domestic product on building and maintaining infrastructure between 1950 and 1970. Since 1980, however, that share has been at 2 percent. One result is a backlog of deficient bridges, a problem that will cost $9.4 billion a year for 20 years to redress, according to a 2005 study by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Roads, water facilities and electricity grids need work, too. The ASCE study called for a spending of $1.6 trillion over five years to bring the nation's infrastructure up to a reasonable standard. Under current law, the national highway system relies on a federal gas tax for revenue. The tax, which has not been increased since 1993, is a fair user fee that can help pay for construction and upkeep while discouraging overuse of obviously strained national assets and encouraging energy conservation and greater use of public transportation. A permanent uptick of a reasonable size in the gas tax is certainly called for.
President Bush has opposed that measure so far, citing congressional inefficiencies in allocating the funds. Fine; he should work with Congress to make highway spending more rational. There are a number of ideas worthy of consideration that are aimed at doing just that. For example, the federal government should separate capital spending from normal operating expenses, which would give appropriators more flexibility to spend money where it is needed most.
Meanwhile, Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) have proposed a national infrastructure bank that would selectively finance projects with special government bonds. The logic of isolating capital investment, insulating it from political pressures and paying for it with long-term debt is appealing. In some cases, private financing also may be appropriate. When Congress reconvenes in September, it should pay more than its usual lip service to the infrastructure challenge.

For the complete editorial, please visit The Washington Post web site.

Sherle Schwenninger in Roll Call on Public Infrastructure Problems

Communications — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:00:00 -0400

New America in the News:

The collapse of the Minnesota interstate bridge, coupled with the explosion of a steam tunnel in Manhattan, should arouse the country to the need for massive infrastructure investment -- and reform of the way it’s financed.

It’s a miracle that more people weren’t killed and injured in the two instances...

Urgent attention will be paid for a few weeks to America’s highway bridges -- 15 percent to 25 percent of which are believed to be structurally deficient -- because of the collapse in Minneapolis.

But attention ought to be paid in a bigger way to the deficiencies in America’s highways, its electric grid, railways, airports, waterways and urban utilities. They all are clogged, inefficient, a sap on the nation’s productivity and competitiveness -- and, in some cases, dangerous.

What’s needed is bipartisan action...

As part of the New America Foundation’s compelling report “Ten Big Ideas for a New America”... Sherle Schwenninger noted that from 1950 to 1970, the U.S. devoted 3 percent of its gross domestic product to infrastructure but since 1980 has spent less than 2 percent. A percent of GDP amounts to $140 billion a year in current dollars that the U.S. is not spending to keep its economy growing. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates national infrastructure needs double that -- $1.6 trillion over a five-year period.

Schwenninger proposed that the U.S. government needs a capital budget to fund infrastructure rather than relying on separate trust funds and appropriations to pay for various projects...

For the complete article, please visit the Roll Call web site.

Pop! Why Bubbles are Great for the Economy

Communications — Tue, 15 May 2007 15:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/15/2007 - 12:15pm

Are investment bubbles a competitive advantage for the U.S. economy, or are they simply examples of the private sector run amok? What role does the visible hand of government and public policy play in the creation of a bubble by helping channel investments into hot new areas? Is there an upside to the rapidly deflating real estate bubble?

Daniel Gross, a columnist for Slate and the New York Times, explored these and other questions while discussing his new book, Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy. In Pop!, published on May 8, Gross upends the conventional wisdom that bubbles are purely lamentable instances of investor foolishness. He argues that in the United States many investment bubbles have left behind usable commercial infrastructures that functioned as platforms for growth and innovation—from the railroad and telegraph in the 19th century to the internet today. In addition, he recasts the role of government in America’s bubble dynamic. Rather than simply helping to clean up the mess it leaves behind, government has been present at the creation of virtually every bubble. Public policy—through subsidies and tariffs, tax breaks and land grants—has always played an important role in encouraging investors to succumb to irrational exuberance.

Video of the event is available at right and a separate audio file is below.

A Capital Budget for Public Investment

adminn — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 01:05:00 -0500

Click here for a brief video discussion of this idea.

The federal budget needs to prioritize spending that will make our economy more productive in the future. Yet, over the last several decades, the portion of the federal budget going to current consumption has increased, while that devoted to public investment has declined. As a result, the federal government does not adequately fund either the physical infrastructure or knowledge capital upon which a more productive economy rests. We are underinvesting not only in traditional… more

A Goldilocks World Economy?

Articles — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 09:22:00 -0500

Over the past decade and half, two developments in the world economy have come together to create conditions for what could be a new era of faster economic growth and rising prosperity. One development involves the integration of China, India and the former Soviet Union into the global economy. The inclusion of these three populous regions into the global economy has created what economists call positive supply-side shocks, resulting in surpluses in labor, capital, and productive capacity. The most obvious impact of China, India, and the former Soviet Union has been on the world's labor market. Their entry into the… more

The United States and the Emerging Powers

Articles — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 12:22:00 -0500

History is replete with examples of great power conflict that develops when the world’s dominant powers are not willing or able to accommodate the interests of rising powers into the international order of the day. The last time the world denied two major rising industrial powers, Germany and Japan, what they considered their rightful place in the sun the result was world war. Following World War II, another hot world war was avoided only because the Western powers accepted the separate international system the Soviet Union had created until it collapsed from its own internal pressures for greater political and… more

Back to the Economy

Communications — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:45:00 -0500

A New America Event
10/30/2006 - 9:45am

This important New America conference features some of the nation's foremost economic experts. Video of the complete event is available at right.

Two new papers from our Economic Growth Program are being released as well -- one detailing the larger growth agenda, the other focused on developing America's Heartland. Both documents are now available below.

Beyond Neo-Cons and Neo-Libs

Communications — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:30:00 -0400

A New America Event
10/12/2006 - 4:30pm

Criticism of existing policies has brought together unlikely coalitions on both the right and the left of the American political spectrum. Does this serve as a sufficient basis for a new bipartisan conception of U.S. foreign policy, grounded in realism?

This event -- co-sponsored by the New America Foundation, The Nation, The National Interest, and the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C. -- brought together prominent conservative and progressive foreign policy thinkers to debate and discuss the issue. Video is available at right, while an MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below.