NDN Backgrounder: Economic Stimulus, Infrastructure, and Keeping People in Their Homes

With President-elect Obama and congressional leaders meeting this week to discuss the economic recovery and reinvestment package, NDN is re-releasing a selection of its economic policy analysis and recommendations from the past few years. I hope you find these essays, memos, and papers helpful.

Background: Economic Recovery and Reinvestment

• Getting the Stimulus Right by Michael Moynihan, 1/6/2009 - Moynihan makes a number of suggestions for ensuring that the upcoming, record-size stimulus package is a success, including a board to oversee the vast expenditures.

• A Vision for a Modernized Electric Grid: Clean Infrastructure for a 21st Century Economy, 11/18/2008 - NDN's Green Project hosted this discussion with Congressmen Jay Inslee and Earl Blumenauer, FERC Comissioner Jon Wellinghoff, Kurt Yeager, and Reid Detchon on the benefits of modernizing the nation's electric grid as part of a clean infrastructure agenda.

• A Stimulus for the Long Run by Simon Rosenberg and Dr. Robert Shapiro, 11/14/2008 – This important essay lays out the now widely agreed-upon argument that the upcoming economic stimulus package must include investments in the basic elements of growth for the next decade, including elements that create a low-carbon, energy-efficient economy.

• Accelerating the Development of a 21st Century Economy: Investing in Clean Infrastructure
  by Michael Moynihan, 10/18/2008 – NDN Green Project Director Michael Moynihan outlines a strategy for investing in clean infrastructure that will help create long-term prosperity.

• Solar Energy: The Case for Action by Michael Moynihan, 8/1/2008 – This major paper on the dynamic solar industry argues that accelerating the deployment of solar energy must become a top economic policy priority of the United States.

• The Green Economic Opportunity and Energy and the American Way of Life, 8/1/2008 - This two-part event featured an address from U.S. Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin on the benefits of a low-carbon economy and Roger Efird, Greg Kats, Jack Hidary, and Shyam Kannan discussing green buildings and clean technology.

• Investing in Our Common Future: U.S. Infrastructure by Michael Moynihan, 11/13/2007 - This
  far-reaching paper proposes a set of measures rebuild and advance our aging infrastructure. These proposals include a GREEN Act to require that federal infrastructure and buildings meet a higher set of environmental standards that not only address issues such as global warming but also establish American leadership in green technologies.
• Tapping the Resources of America's Community Colleges: A Modest Proposal to Provide Universal Access to Computer Training by Dr. Robert Shapiro, 7/26/2007 – This innovative proposal details how every American can have access to computer training, thereby upgrading the skills of the nation’s workforce.

• A Laptop in Every Backpack by Simon Rosenberg and Alec Ross, 5/1/2007 – Rosenberg and the One Economy Corporation’s Ross offer a modest proposal for putting a laptop in the backpack of every American sixth grader, as connectivity to and facility with the global communications network are essential for success in the 21st century.

Background: Keeping People in Their Homes, The Bailout

• If Detroit Goes Down, Will It Take the Economy -- and the GOP -- With It? by Dr. Robert Shapiro, 11/19/2008 - Shapiro argues that, since the Bush Administration is at least partially responsible for the economic situation facing the automakers, it should put its weight behind helping the industry and its workers.

• Notes on the Financial Crisis by Michael Moynihan, 9/26/2008 - Moynihan examines the panic fueled by the Bush Administrations inadequate response to the financial meltdown.

• Back to Basics: The Treasury Plan Won't Work by Dr. Robert Shapiro, 9/24/2008 - As the financial crisis unfolded and the Bush Administration offered its response, Shapiro argued that, while major action was needed, the Treasury's plan would be ineffective. 

• Keep People in Their Homes by Simon Rosenberg and Dr. Robert Shapiro, 9/23/2008 – At the beginning of the financial collapse, NDN offered this narrative-shaping essay and campaign on the economic need to stabilize the housing market.

• NDN to Congress: "Keep People in Their Homes" by Simon Rosenberg and Dr. Robert Shapiro, 9/17/2008 - NDN made this leading statement on the need for the federal government to keep people in their homes.

Background: A New Economic Strategy for America

• The Idea-Based Economy and Globalization: The Real Foundations of American Prosperity in the 21st Century by Dr. Robert Shapiro, 1/23/2008 – In this important paper, NDN Globalization Initiative Chair Dr. Robert Shapiro examines how and why U.S. companies and workers lead the world in developing and applying new intellectual property, and why this leadership in innovation constitutes a critical U.S. advantage in globalization.

• NDN Poll Memos: American Voters' Views on the Economy and Globalization - Clamoring for Change, Persistent Pessimism, Democrats dominating on economic issues, 11/2/2007; Americans’ Views of the Present and Future Economy: Anxiety and Opportunity, 11/6/2007 - NDN’s comprehensive polls of American attitudes in 2007 about the economy make it clear that that the American people understand the current era of globalization, but are frustrated with the inability of their leaders to provide an economic framework that adequately and effectively deals with its impacts.

• The New Landscape of Globalization: The Real Foundations of American Prosperity in the 21st Century by Dr. Robert Shapiro, 6/20/2007 – Shapiro offers this forward-looking paper on the current state of globalization and how America can thrive in this new economic era.

• Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century: Crafting a Better CAFTA by Simon Rosenberg, Dr. Robert Shapiro, and Joe Garcia, 6/9/2005 - NDN calls on progressive policymakers to face squarely our own vision of how globalization can and should work, as well as how America can best promote economic and political progress by our Latin American neighbors.