EconomicCrisis.US

How can we ease Americans’ financial pain and help “return the nation to a “full employment economy”? That’s a question with no easy answers, notes former President Bill Clinton — but government and business leaders can start truly addressing the economic crisis by “building a world of shared prosperity and shared responsibility,” he said during a speech at the National Retail Federation’s annual convention in New York Monday.

In his speech, Clinton offered up some wide-ranging prescriptions for curing the nation’s ailing economy, among them investing in new sectors for job growth — for example, retrofitting buildings so that they’re energy-efficient — supporting high-end manufacturing in the U.S., lowering the tax rate for businesses so they can reinvest in job creation, and “accelerating the resolution of the mortgage crisis” by helping people who owe more on their homes than they’re worth. One way would be to lower the principals on those loans to the value of the homes, he said.
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An anemic housing market and stubbornly high unemployment have become tired and embedded themes of the U.S. economic crisis. A lesser publicized condition is the significantly high cash balances held by U.S. corporations overseas. A pragmatic policy prescription advocated by economist Dr. Ed Yardini in his “New Homestead Act” connects the dots of these three conditions with a deficit-neutral funding mechanism. It seeks to harness the integrative powers of these conditions to transform a “vicious” cycle into a “virtuous” cycle by engaging a new lever to activate important economic multipliers.
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A year ago, I published a book that argued that, for all the privations and dislocations of the economic crisis, it also provides us with the opportunity to make fundamental changes in our economy and society. I characterized these changes as a Great Reset, and I found similar moments in American history when new economic orders arose from the ashes of old ones, ushering in new eras of growth and prosperity.

Since writing the book, I’ve been able to see for myself what I’ve long suspected: that Great Resets unfold not from top-down policies and programs but gradually, as millions upon millions of people respond to challenging economic times by changing the ways that they live. The economic crisis has taught us the hard way that we need to live within our means, to forestall debt; it’s made us understand that we don’t have to define ourselves in terms of material goods, that we can achieve a more meaningful and sustainable way of life.
Watching the Reset unfold, it’s been fascinating to see how quickly the once great divide between our cities and suburbs has been shrinking. The most desirable neighborhoods look increasingly similar, no matter where they are. The best urban neighborhoods are safe and have good schools; they are becoming strollervilles and toddler-towns, filled with families as well as singles. The best suburban neighborhoods have great commercial districts with restaurants, movie theaters, and all manner of amenities.
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Today, we launched Change Nation, an action network designed to address the economic crisis in America. Our nation faces a jobs disaster: Some 25 million people lack good jobs. The jobs crisis is the most obvious symptom of a broken economy that is only working for those at the very top. Another glaring symptom is that the richest 400 people in America now have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans. These facts are related, and we are determined to DO SOMETHING about it.

Change Nation has a simple mission: give voice, power, and connecting tools to everyone in America who wants to build an economy that works for all of us. With out-of-touch politicians and greedy corporations blocking real solutions, the only way we can change America is to make sure all of us join together and make progress happen. Change has only happened in America when people band together, organize and speak from the power of “We.”
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