NDN Economic Backgrounder - Climate Change, Healthcare Reform and Financial Regulation

The week has seen a number of important debates - the future of American foreign policy, healthcare reform, climate change and new financial reform. Here's what NDN has had to say:

  • Choices in Universal Healthcare by Dr. Robert Shapiro, 6/17/09 - Shapiro's overseas travel left him with some fresh perspective on the future of American healthcare.
  • More Inconvenient Truths by Michael Moynihan, 6/17/09 - Moynihan writes that the Obama administration's important report on the dangerous realities of climate change illustrates a cap and market regime will not begin to address the true and lasting costs of climate change.
  • Passing Climate Change This Year by Michael Moynihan, 6/16/09 - Moynihan continues to make the case that there has never been a better time to pass a climate change bill and if action does not take place this year, the prospects for passage are likely to decline.
  • Getting Serious about Our Financial Mess by Dr. Robert Shapiro, 6/10/09 - America needs new, serious financial regulations. Shapiro argues the recent decision to keep trading in large, "private" deals in derivatives outside regulated markets is just one of a series of poor regulatory decisions the administration has made in the wake of TARP.
  • Clean Technology Innovation: Reaping the Rewards by Michael Moynihan, 6/9/09 - Moynihan writes about the status quo's stranglehold on clean technology innovation. He outlines three steps the administration should take to encourage entrepreneurship and consumer choice.
  • Seizing the Smart Grid Opportunity by Michael Moynihan, 6/2/09 - In order for America to make good on clean energy opportunity, Moynihan says we must open up the grid to all and re-examine energy regulation.
  • The Economic Conversation Enters a New Phase: Putting Consumers Front and Center Now  by Simon Rosenberg, Huffington Post, 5/14/09 - Rosenberg writes that the Administration's turn in the national economic conversation from the plight of big institutions and the financial system to what is perhaps the most important part of the story of the Great Recession still is not adequately understood - the weakened state of the American consumer prior to the recent recession and financial collapse.
  • Should We Try to Save the Damaged Brands? by Simon Rosenberg, 4/30/2009 - Rosenberg asks if these mainstay, now troubled American brands - AIG, Chrysler, Citi, GM - can be saved by being propped up by the government or if their brands are permanently insolvent.
  • Spend? Save? The debate continues, by Simon Rosenberg, 2/11/2009 - Building on a previous post  , Rosenberg follows the growing debate about whether American families should be focusing on saving.
  • A Stimulus for the Long Run by Simon Rosenberg and Dr. Robert Shapiro, 11/14/2008 - This important essay lays out the now widely agreed-upon argument that the upcoming economic stimulus package must include investments in the basic elements of growth for the next decade, including elements that create a low-carbon, energy-efficient economy.