Smart Globalization Initiative

What Will Replace The American Consumer?

Economic Growth — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:02:00 -0400

What will take the place of the American consumer is the biggest question hanging over the world economy.
For the past decade and a half, U.S. consumption has been the principal driver of world economic growth, supplying demand for the fast-growing export economies of Asia, whose growth in turn increased demand for capital goods from Europe and Asia and for oil and commodities from Latin America, Africa, and the Persian Gulf. From 1997 to 2008, personal consumption as a percentage of GDP in the United States increased from 67 percent to over 70 percent.

Jared Bernstein: The Jobs Deficit

Economic Growth — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:00:00 -0400

BERNARD L. SCHWARTZ ECONOMIC SYMPOSIUM

THE JOBS DEFICIT
The Challenge Of Putting America Back To Work

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2009 12:00 P.M.
THE MAYFLOWER HOTEL WASHINGTON, D.C.

KEYNOTE SPEECH
JARED BERNSTEIN
Chief Economist And Economic Policy Advisor To The Vice President

TO DOWNLOAD THE POWERPOINT SLIDES FOR THIS SPEECH, CLICK HERE.

INTRODUCTION:

POLICY ROUNDTABLE: The Challenge of Job Creation

Next Social Contract — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:30:00 -0400

What the Government Can Do to Better Promote Job Creation
by Timothy J. Bartik

Jobs: What Can We Do?
by James K. Galbraith

The Time Has Come for Direct Job Creation
by L. Randall Wray

G-20 Preview | Connecticut Public Radio

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:39:00 -0400

America's Debt Overhang

Kate Schuler — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:00:00 -0400

The bursting of the housing and credit bubble has left the United States with a large debt overhang. America’s total debt is at a historical high of 373% of GDP and has more than doubled since 1980, when it stood at 161%. Household and financial sector debt has accounted for the lion’s share of the increase.

To read more, click on the slideshow below.

Panic Anniversary No Reason for Joy

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:29:00 -0400

We are a full year removed from the September 15, 2008, bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, which sent the global financial system into a tailspin, and yet just 10 days removed from one of the most dismal unemployment reports in 80 years.

On the one hand, this is no kind of celebratory one-year "anniversary," if you want to call it that, and it was certainly no kind of Labor Day either. And they are related.

State Predicts Bright Future for Jobs in Solar Energy | Boston Globe

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:06:00 -0400

Samuel Sherraden, a policy analyst at the nonpartisan New America Foundation in Washington, DC, said the industry is too new to benefit from job creation ... and more »

'Buy American' -- Why Not?

Erin Drankoski — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:40:00 -0400

Federal government purchases make up about 20% of the U.S. economy, yet the United States is almost alone among the major developed nations and China in not having a significant "buy domestic" government procurement program.

No single economic stimulus initiative would do more in the short and long term to resuscitate U.S. employment, especially manufacturing employment, and to materially reduce our economy-zapping massive trade deficit than a fair "buy American" program.

Budget Deficit and Economic Growth | WTOP

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:27:00 -0400

Japan Rethinks Reform

Next Social Contract — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:09:00 -0400

"The Koizumi reforms" was one of the portmanteau concepts most commonly bandied about in Japanese political debates in the summer of 2009 as the parties geared up for the August election. Japan had in fact embarked on its neo-liberal agenda of deregulation and privatization well before the charismatic Mr. Koizumi laconically offered his "no gain without pain" recipes, but it was pushed with most enthusiasm during his premiership from 2001 to 2006.