Spoke to the House Democratic Caucus Last Night About the Economy

Last night I joined Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, and Robert Kuttner, the co-editor of the American Prospect, on a panel in front of the House Democratic Caucus.  Each of us offered our thoughts about what a new economic strategy for America could look like.  After our presentations, a passionate and intense discssion broke out about the struggle of every day people in America today.  Several members spoke eloquently, and with great feeling, about the pain and suffering they are seeing in the eyes of their constituents, and the simple desire Americans have for their government to act definitively on their behalf in a time of national struggle.

You can feel the sensibility of Washington transitioning now from the many issues discussed this year to a single central focus - doing something about the increasingly difficult struggle of every day people in this more competitive global economy and in the midst of the Great Recession.  As readers of this blog know, developing a new economic strategy for America in this new economic era has been the central obsession of NDN these past few years, and we have offered more than a few essays, events and posts addressing it all.  We welcome this turn and stand ready to work with policymakers here in Washington to develop this new strategy, and then see it through in the years to come.

Over the weekend I wrote this essay about the rise of China and other developing nations and what it means for the US.  Jake Berliner, deputy policy director for our Globalization Initiative, just put together this comprehensive summary of our major work over the past few years.

And, as always, interested in hearing from you with your thoughts about the economy and what just might go into this new economic strategy for America.  It is long past time we had this debate about economic future in the face of fast changing domestic and global economies in earnest.

Thanks to Rep. John Larson and his very able team for putting together the excellent conversation.  A debate began last night that I think will be echoing through the halls of Congress for months to come.

Update - The briefing book the Members of Congress received last night included this recent NDN essay, "The Key to the Fall Debate: Staying Focused on the Economy."

Update 2 - The Hill reports on the meeting last night, and the new "jobs" strategy emerging from the House.