Brookings Institution

Washington, DC

One of the most influential policy institutes in America, the Brookings Institution analyzes current and emerging policy issues in the U.S. and abroad. Mr. Schwartz supports the Brookings Institution through a number of events aimed at promoting a vibrant discourse on American competitiveness.

Bernard L. Schwartz Forum on U.S. Competitiveness

The purpose of this initiative is to challenge a common ideology shared by many academic economists. With respect to many of the issues that face the US today, many have already adopted a view that forecasts a decline in America’s standard of living, an increasing imbalance in trade and in the effect of the acceleration of outsourcing with its consequential loss of jobs in the U.S. This thinking cites a continuing escalation of the deficit, a lower savings rate, the crushing liability of social security and pension costs, and the high cost of medical insurance. These issues may predict America’s inability to compete in a new, flat world.

However, there is an optimistic school of thought that rejects that conclusion as underestimating the strengths of the American society and its economy, its ability to transform science into the marketplace, the advantages of its free capital markets, its mobility of labor and capital, its intellectual property, its inventiveness, and its resilience. These optimists believe foreign competitors face immense social, political, and cultural challenges which will undermine their own competitiveness.

This program provides a credible forum for the open examination of these issues through a series of events and research.

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Chair in International Economics

The Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in International Economics tackles some of the hardest questions in international economics, including how to address trade, technology, intellectual property rights, and an increasingly global economy while ensuring American competitiveness.

The first Brookings scholar hold the Chair is Lael Brainard, vice president and director of the Global Economy and Development Center at the Brookings Institution.

In this position, Ms. Brainard addresses the multifaceted dimensions of globalization and competitiveness, and conducts and publishes research, organizes conferences, workshops, briefings and forums on these issues for policy-makers and the general public. More on Lael Brainard

October 10, 2007

Schwartz Forum on Competitiveness - America's Infrastructure: Ramping Up or Crashing Down

On October 10, Brookings hosted the third in a series of forums on U.S. competitiveness, a public symposium that explored the challenges and opportunities for new infrastructure investment. This two-panel discussion included experts on transportation and competitiveness policy, drawn from government, industry and the states. Read More

Transcript

- Former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack speaking at the Schwartz Forum on October 10, 2007

June 13, 2007

Lael Brainard, Vice President and Director, Global Economy and Development and Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in International Economics, testimony to the Committee on Small Business, U.S. House of Representatives
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