Smart Globalization Initiative

Leo Hindery, the chair of the Smart Globalization Initiative at the New America Foundation, and former Michigan Senator Donald Riegle, a Democrats who ...

Thank you Mr. Chairman and members of this committee for the honor of addressing you today.  Mr. Chairman, it is a tribute to your leadership that this roundtable is being convened in recognition of the centrality of economic and financial issues to American foreign policy. 

The great financial bubble of the Clinton-Bush years has ended in tears--in home foreclosures, bank failures and what promises to be the most severe global economic recession since the Great Depression. As President-elect Obama puts together his economic recovery program, he needs to understand that the economic crisis is the result not just of unscrupulous mortgage lenders and unregulated investment bankers on Wall Street but of the globalization of finance and trade that key members of his economic team set… more

Wall Street's and Washington's largest financial institutions are fighting for survival. The environment grows more hostile every day. Only those that evolve will prevail.

Leo Tilman, author of "Financial Darwinism", president of strategic advisory firm L.M. Tilman & Co. and former Chief Institutional Strategist at Bear Stearns, discusses the origins of the financial crisis and how to radically redesign the financial system to make it fit to survive.

A post-election discussion with the New America Foundation.

The New America Foundation's Smart Globalization Initiative and Next Social Contract Initiative cordially invite you and your colleagues to an important national policy forum.

The following are highlights of the event, while video of the full discussion can be viewed at right.

Steve Clemons “Given the economic meltdown today…we ought to consider the interests of various partners in the global economy.” “What are the responsible roles and intermingling interests in the world economy?” Frank Micciche “There are rights and responsibilities that each sector of… more

Infrastructure and Economic Opportunity

Not all that long ago, America's prominent business and government leaders widely believed that our nation's prosperity depended on a strong middle class growing from the bottom up. Workers were rewarded for their hard work with fair wages, benefits and advancement opportunities -- and our economy and our national security were much stronger for it. Henry Ford certainly knew this, and often said that his company would prosper only if his workers earned enough to buy the Fords they produced. And in 1953, when General… more

On August 14, the New America Foundation hosted Pat Choate, Director of the Manufacturing Policy Project, to discuss his new book, Dangerous Business: The Risks of Globalization for America, a tell-all look at the dangers that unfettered globalization poses to America’s security and the American middle class. Choate began by detailing a few of the threats the United States faces from unfettered international trade. He stated that we continue to import defective and often dangerous consumer goods from… more

To watch their full remarks, click here.

Comprehensive health care reform is necessary to free our businesses and families from rising health care costs and to compete in the global economy. American auto companies spend $1500 on health care per vehicle they produce, while Germany spends $450 per car, and Japan $150. The average health care cost is now close to $8,000 per person per year. We must solve the health care challenge to improve the competitiveness of corporate America and secure the incomes… more