Rebuilding America’s Productive Economy

Thanks to the digital revolution, people, companies, and industries can increasingly choose to locate anywhere, making regions with a good quality of life increasingly attractive as economic centers of activity. In this regard, the Heartland, that vast expansion of America from the Middle West to the Mountain West, has enormous underutilized and untapped resources — from low housing costs and good schools to a favorable business climate, plentiful land and other natural resources — that make it a potentially attractive location for new business development.

Joel Kotkin and Delore Zimmerman, authors of a forthcoming New America report on the subject, will outline an economic program that would make the Heartland an engine for U.S. economic growth in the decade ahead. They highlight the potential for value-added agriculture, new energy development, onshoring of both production and services, and developing new technology centers. Join us for a brown bag lunch session as we explore the challenges and opportunities of tapping the oft-overlooked potential of the Heartland.

Participants

• Joel Kotkin
  Irvine Senior Fellow, New America Foundation
• Sherle R. Schwenninger
  Director, Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program, New America Foundation
• Delore Zimmerman
  President and CEO of Praxis and
  Director, Red River Valley Research Center