The Jobless Recovery

Despite ubiquitous talk of “green shoots,” America’s unemployment crisis is worse than most pundits and politicians care to acknowledge, and the nation is headed for a jobless recovery in which high unemployment will persist. That was the message delivered in a recent New America Foundation report and corresponding conference yesterday on Capitol Hill. During Wednesday’s discussion, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Leo Hindery, Jr., Chair of the Smart Globalization Initiative at New America, called for a comprehensive manufacturing and industrial policy to rebuild the productive sectors of the economy and put Americans back to work.

Senator Brown, Chairman of the Economic Policy Subcommittee of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, called for a five-part strategy to strengthen American manufacturing: create straightforward tax advantages for “green” industry, strengthen component supply chains, match dislocated workers with emerging industries, systematically assist economically-distressed communities, and promote exports by defending against unfair trade. By thinking proactively, Brown argued, we can make American manufacturing interesting, exciting, and world-changing once again.

Leo Hindery, Jr., whose piece on the jobless recovery appears in the newest issue of The Nation magazine, praised Senator Brown’s leadership on economic issues and called on both parties to recognize the magnitude of America’s un- and under-employment crises. We cannot rebuild the economy by re-enriching the wealthy, he argued–a position he emphasized in recent commentary for the Financial Times calling for curbs on excessive executive compensation. Instead, the Administration should get over its intellectual opposition to picking specific industries that it wishes to rebuild and support, adopt a 10-year strategy to rebuild American infrastructure, and implement a strong “Buy American” policy.

—Event summary by Daniel Mandel, Program Associate, Next Social Contract Initiative, New America Foundation

Participants

Featured
speakers
Senator Sherrod
Brown (D-OH)
Member, Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions

Leo
Hindery, Jr.
Managing Partner, InterMedia Partners
Chairman,
Smart Globalization Initiative, New America
Foundation