| Please register to receive the benefits of our network-wide features. |
Register (free) |
Log In
|
| Please register to receive the benefits of our network-wide features. |
Register (free) |
Log In
|
Aspen Institute
Aspen, CO
Jul 6th, 2007
[A video version of this presentation is available at Fora.tv]
With globalization an economic reality that won't go away, whoever is elected as the next United States president will require knowledge and skill in meeting change while ensuring average Americans don't miss the train. Opinions are strong, with anti-globalization and populist policies gaining traction, but our panelists believe there are solutions beyond taking a pause.
In this discussion, Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Stephen Friedman, argues that all is not gloomy with hundreds of millions of people being lifted out of poverty everyday around the world and unemployment at a low. There are, nonetheless, some big challenges facing the president elect. The list is long and change will be necessary, but we must not kill the golden goose that is the American economy.
Gene B. Sperling, an American economist and political expert, thinks that regardless of who takes the seat in Washington, he or she will need to balance their partisan values against hearing the other side of the debate if they are to formulate sound policy. For Republicans, this means listening to the economic realities of the poor and middle class. Democrats cannot turn their backs on growth, although growth needs to be more than a simple GDP calculation.
People want more than protection or a bailout when manufacturing goes overseas. This means a suite of new approaches to social policies that do more than bring back old jobs but will ready families and industry for the new ones. Whatever the future president does, both speakers agree he or she will have to take a Hippocratic oath and promise 'to do no harm'.
Gene B. Sperling is an American economist and political expert, currently serving as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. He is also on the staff of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he serves as Senior Fellow for Economic Policy and Director of the Center on Universal Education. He was also a consultant for the television series The West Wing.
Stephen Friedman is the chairman at Stone Point Capital LLC, which manages private equity funds investing in financial services businesses. He is chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and chairman of the Intelligence Oversight Board. The retired chairman of Goldman Sachs, Friedman has also served as assistant to President George W. Bush for economic policy and director of the National Economic Council. A graduate of Cornell University and Columbia University Law School, he is a board member of the Goldman, Sachs Group and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the chairman of Harbor Point Re, a Bermuda-based reinsurance company.
Robert D. Hormats is vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a managing director of Goldman Sachs & Co. Hormats has served as US assistant secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, ambassador and deputy US Trade Representative, and senior deputy assistant secretary for Economic and Business Affairs at the US Department of State. He was a senior staff member on the National Security Council and senior economic advisor to National Security Advisors Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Hormats has received the French Legion of Honor and Arthur Fleming Award. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Board of Visitors of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the Dean’s Council of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
This free podcast is from our The Best of Fora.tv series.
For The Conversations Network:
Play