This is a guest note by Daniel Mandel. Daniel is a Program Associate for the New America Foundation/Next Social Contract Initiative.
(Photo Credit: Samuel Sherraden)
There has been no shortage of hand-wringing about America’s current unemployment crisis, which is unprecedented in modern times. But what has been lacking is a set of concrete proposals to address the jobs crisis in concert with other significant problems facing the United States: creaking infrastructure, climate change, and massive current account and fiscal deficits.
A new paper by New America Foundation/Economic Growth Program Director Sherle Schwenninger and Policy Analyst Samuel Sherraden explains what Washington needs to do to get serious about doubling U.S. exports:
Expanding exports can help offset weak domestic demand caused by household deleveraging, allowing us to work out of debt without a loss in output and a fall in our living standards. But like other Obama administration initiatives, the strategy the president articulated falls short of the goal…Does one really think that the promotional efforts of an Export Promotion Cabinet will result in a $1.6 trillion dollar increase in the sales of U.S. produced goods and services abroad?….
If the Obama administration is serious about its goal of doubling exports over the next five years, it will need 1) a currency policy to ensure a fair and competitive playing field; 2) an international strategy to promote global growth and the rebalancing of the world economy; and 3) a coherent manufacturing strategy to onshore more investment and production so that increased external demand results in increased U.S exports.
New America Foundation, Economists for Peace & Security (EPS) and Bernard Schwartz are hosting “Jobs, Investment and Energy: Meeting President Obama’s Challenge,” a symposium that will bring together leading politicians, academics, and policy thinkers to offer recommendations for the economic redevelopment of America.
Speakers include Governor Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania, EPS Chair and University of Texas-Austin Economist James K. Galbraith, who has outlined a series of innovative job-creation proposals; Lisa Margonelli, Director of the New America Foundation/Energy Policy Initiative; and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Professor Charles Hall, a leader in the burgeoning field of biophysical economics.
This event will be held this Tuesday in the Rotunda Room of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center and will STREAM LIVE here at The Washington Note.
Event details are available here.
— Daniel Mandel
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