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A Progressive Program for Economic Recovery and Financial Reconstruction

By Radhika Balakrishnan, Gerald Epstein, Robert Pollin, Stephany Griffith-Jones, Jose Antonio Ocampo

Political Economy Research Institute, March 16, 2009

AUTHORS: Radhika Balakrishnan, James Crotty, Edwin Dickens, Gerald Epstein, Thomas Ferguson, Teresa Ghilarducci, Jo-Marie Greisgraber, Stephany Griffith-Jones, Robert Guttmann, Arjun Jayadev, Anush Kapadia, David Kotz, Michael Meerepol, Fred Moseley, Jose Antonio Ocampo, Robert Pollin, Malcolm Sawyer, and Martin Wolfson

The authors outline a group of feasible policy initiatives that can be taken by the Obama administration and coordinated globally to put people first, make the transition to a greener economy, and place front and center the important roles government and social management of markets must play to restore health, stability, and fairness to the nation's and world's economies.

They outline first a program for economic recovery that helps in the very short term to promote economic recovery but also contains elements that will work only in the medium and longer term. Most of the focus of this recovery plan is on the U.S. economy, but they also note the need for global economic coordination. The next section discusses monetary and financial policies and regulations, again discussing both short-term issues as well as longer-run questions of monetary and financial reform. The fourth section focuses on the international dimensions of economic recovery and financial reconstruction, and the last section presents a proposal for Congressional hearings and our conclusions.

Their program consists of principles and policies to: Revive the economy by instituting a massive public investment and financial support program focusing on jobs, housing, state and local services, green investments, and infrastructure investments, supported by expansionary monetary policy; Reform the financial sector bailouts to be fairer, less costly and more effective, by broadening and strengthening the oversight of financial institutions and using government leverage to realize significant changes in how these financial institutions operate; Reverse extreme inequality and increase the prosperity and power of families and communities; Re-regulate and restructure the financial sector while upgrading capabilities for effective public supervision and management; Reform international economic governance to make the transition to a more balanced, prosperous and just global economy appropriate to changing global realities.

External Link: A Progressive Program for Economic Recovery and Financial Reconstruction [PDF]

Read More: Business, Debt, Economy, Finance, Globalization, United States, Americas

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