Recovery or recession, delay or decline, success or stagnation? Amid a protracted economic downturn, a highly partisan political atmosphere and record-high unemployment levels, it’s still unclear how the history books will look back on this period in America’s culture and economy. That doesn’t mean, however, that the world’s top thinkers don’t have plenty of opinions on the topic.
Is America in decline? Absolutely not, but it will have to share its superpower limelight, according to Former President Bill Clinton. At the World Economic Forum, he said the 21st century will belong to many players, but insists that it will be better off with America remaining an influential force. Clinton warns that the new Republicans and Tea Party will need to stop politicking in a “parallel universe divorced from reality” if America is to remain a positive world force.
Those who warn of a continued decline in the American economy often attribute it to the last decade’s rapid rise in income inequality. What we need is to return to the tax rates of the 1950s. That’s right, the 1950s, says author Malcom Gladwell. The highest income tax rate during this prosperous decade was 91 percent.
Speaking of the 1950s, remember communism, the red menace? It’s back… and it’s the federal debt. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels provides thoughtful insight into this “survival-level threat” that, he says, could come to fruition sooner and more quickly than ever expected.
On to Wall Street, what ever happened to reform? Charles Ferguson, director of the Academy Award-winning documentary Inside Job, offers up his proposals; regulate the salaries of those in risk-taking positions who can inflict real damage to our financial system.