• Blogs
  • Events
  • Press
  • Keyword Search

  • Date Range

  • Author

  • Issue Areas

  • Roosevelt@

  • Content type

  • Reset

Roosevelt Institute

  • ABOUT
    • Mission
    • Board
    • Our Team
      • Staff
      • Fellows
      • Network Student Leadership
  • THINK TANK
    • Corporate Power
    • Labor and Wages
    • Democratic Accountability
    • Higher Education
  • ROOSEVELT NETWORK
    • Re:Public
    • Financialization of Higher Education
    • The Forge Fellowship
    • 10 Ideas
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • FDR LIBRARY
SUPPORT ROOSEVELT
 

New Rules for the 21st Century: Corporate Power, Public Power, and the Future of the American Economy

New Rules for the 21st Century: Corporate Power, Public Power, and the Future of the American Economy

by Nell Abernathy , Darrick Hamilton , Julie Margetta Morgan / Wednesday, 10 April 2019 / Published in Economic Inclusion, Economy & Growth, Education, Health Care, Insights Left Column, Publications, Report

America’s political landscape and economic thinking are shifting. The 2016 election—and the rise of powerful movements over the past decade—has shown us that Americans are calling for change. They want a diagnosis of our economy to help make sense of what’s gone wrong and to suggest ways to make things better. In New Rules for the 21st Century: Corporate Power, Public Power, and the Future of the American Economy, the Roosevelt Institute’s Nell Abernathy, Darrick Hamilton, and Julie Margetta Morgan argue that the future of the American economy and our democracy depend on a new way of thinking about markets and a new way of thinking about the role of government. With a renewed commitment to transforming corporations, restructuring markets, reviving democratic institutions, and reimagining the role of government, we can respond to our current political moment. Ultimately, we want to restructure our economy to make both the private and public sectors better serve more Americans.

The report includes a foreword by Roosevelt Chief Economist Joseph E. Stiglitz. “In many ways, abuses of growing corporate power—both in the public and private sphere—and the diminution of public power are at the core of our current predicament,” he says.

Despite more work hours and headline economic growth, wages are persistently low. Wealth inequality threatens our shared economic prosperity and our democracy. The basic building blocks of a safe and secure life, such as quality education and accessible health care, are increasingly out of reach. Climate change is destroying the health of our planet, and it’s set to imperil the economy—and our lives. Progress made toward economic inclusion in the wake of the civil rights and women’s rights era has been held back, while overt racism is gaining momentum in our public discourse. Our democracy is in peril like never before. The challenges we face may seem disparate, but they share common roots: The problem is an approach to policymaking based on the flawed belief that markets are the only efficient way to achieve public goals. This has dominated our politics and policymaking for the past 50 years.

The Roosevelt Institute is offering a progressive one-two punch: We must curb corporate power and reimagine public power, which means reimagining the role of government. We can do this by:

  • Rethinking the contemporary markets-first approach in favor of a more pragmatic assessment: when and how to deploy the power of government to directly provide goods and services and tackle the challenges our nation faces;
  • Restructuring the economy by writing new rules that strike at the heart of today’s concentrations of wealth and power; and
  • Reforming our political institutions, so that we can make both the private sector and the government work for all of us again.

Over the last four years, this structural argument about remaking American institutions in the public good has been ascendant, but it is far from victorious. Reining in extractive corporate power. Deploying government power in new and expansive ways. Both are needed to build an inclusive economy and meet our country’s pressing needs. Progressives who are willing to punch back at 50 years of distorted policy choices have empirics, morality, and the American people on their side.


Read the report summary here.


See press hits for the report here.

Learn more about New Rules for the 21st Century here.

22
Tagged under: Antitrust, Corporate Power, Democratic Accountability, Economic Inclusion, healthcare, Higher Education, inequality, market power, public goods, public power
http://bit.ly/2Off3EK
Download

Authors

  • Author
    Nell Abernathy

    As Vice President for Strategy and Policy, Nell Abernathy identifies and develops new programmatic areas for Roosevelt, and guides research on institutional priorities. Nell managed and co-authored "New Rules for the 21st Century," in 2019, and "Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy" with Joseph Stiglitz in 2015.

  • Co-Author
    Darrick Hamilton

    Darrick Hamilton is a Fellow at Roosevelt Institute and the director of the doctoral program in public and urban policy, jointly appointed as a professor of economics and urban policy at The Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy and the Department of Economics, The New School for Social Research at The New School in New York. He is a co-associate director of the Cook Center on Social Equity.

  • Co-Author
    Julie Margetta Morgan

    Julie Margetta Morgan is a Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.

SIGN UP TO RECEIVE EMAIL UPDATES

SUPPORT ROOSEVELT

DONATE

ISSUE AREA

  • Corporate Power
  • Labor and Wages
  • Democratic Accountability
  • Higher Education
  • Re:Public Project
  • Financialization of Higher Education
  • Forge Fellowship
  • 10 Ideas

FEATURED REPORTS

  • Powerless: How Lax Antitrust and Concentrated Market Power Rig the Economy Against American Workers, Consumers, and Communities

    March 27, 2018
  • Universal Basic Income: What is it, and Is it Right for the U.S.?

    October 12, 2016

ROOSEVELT@ HIGHLIGHTS

  • Unstacking the Deck: A New Agenda to Tame Corruption in Washington

    May 2, 2018
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • PRESS
  • CONTACT
  • GET SOCIAL
Roosevelt Institute

© 2019 Roosevelt Institute

TOP