Secretary Buttigieg, Mitch Landrieu Join Economic Thought Leaders to Discuss a People-Centered Economy
11. 06. 2023
Convening coincides with a strong jobs report showing economic resilience and durability
New York, N.Y. — Key Administration leaders including Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Senior Advisor Mitch Landrieu, Economist Heather Boushey, and NEC member Elizabeth Kelly joined key economic and political decision-makers, for Bold New Consensus: a day-long ideas conference on the once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a resilient and equitable economic system that, shores up democracy and prepares our workforce for a new economic future that puts people before profits. Just as today’s jobs report highlights a resilient workforce – upending previous economic opinions that pointed to a recession – Bold New Consensus presented a range of economic ideas to highlight how we can reconsider prevailing economic theories and continue charting a different path for our economic future.
Click to watch Bold New Consensus speeches and panel discussions
Hear from Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, and many more.
Visit link (opens in new tab): Hear from Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, and many more.Natalie Foster, co-founder of the Economic Security Project, kicked off the event, saying, “Power has to be rebalanced away from corporate America and towards families and workers.” Foster went on to frame the conversation and response to the pandemic by pointing out that, “The ‘guarantees’ were ideas that were laying around, and when a crisis hit, – guaranteed income, guaranteed care, guaranteed education – we saw glimmers of so many of them.” (video)
“Our commitment to our approach is not rooted in idealism, but in experience,” said Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg. “When I see the failure of trickle-down economics, and the empirical collapse of the Laffer Curve, I want to respond with ‘it sounds good in theory, but our ideas work better.’ The question of whether to be practical or to be bold has been answered. Let’s be bold.” (video)
“At some point, people will realize we’ve transformed the state of the United States economy forever,” said White House Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Coordinator, Mitch Landrieu. Senior Advisor Landrieu went on to say “We have projects in Buffalo, Colorado, and El Paso – where highways split communities of color, we’re taking those highways down, or we’re putting them underground. These communities proposed these changes to us, so their ideas, their plans, and their voices are being heard. In addition to making the trains and buses run on time, the people that make the trains in the buses are doing better.” (video)
“It comes down to the way that we are thinking about the economy is different. Bidenomics is about making investments across the country that we need to make, making sure that we’re empowering workers, and we’re shaping markets to be competitive,” said Heather Boushey, Member of the White House Heather Council of Economic Advisors. (video)
Speaking to the rapid development of AI, Elizabeth Kelly – Special Assistant to the President on the National Economic Council – had this to say: “The administration has identified 700+ use cases for AI to help serve the American people better. There are positive use cases within government – it’s incumbent on us to get the talent resources to bear.” (video)
Hosted by the Economic Security Project, in partnership with the Roosevelt Institute, Community Change, and the Hewlett Foundation, the event featured panelists speaking on investing in our workforce, post-pandemic recovery, building AI for public good, and the unprecedented investment from the IRA that will grow the economy from the middle-class outward.