In The Moment … May 11, 2020 Show 814 Hour 1
All eyes are on the U.S. economy and the national death toll as states navigate various stages of returning to commerce. The pandemic has laid bare problems with the economy many didn't realize existed. Others have been warning about those problems for decades. As we watch the unemployment numbers rise we also wonder what those numbers mean for South Dakotans, from farmers to factory workers to families.
It is this focus on how the national economic numbers are playing out in the lives of everyday Americans that makes a new book by Gene Sperling stand out. "Economic Dignity" has been released in a time of massive upheaval. And it asks us not how we can get "back to normal," but rather how we can reimagine an economy that works for human beings in ways that haven't always seemed like a priority.
Gene Sperling was director of the National Economic Council under both President Obama (2011-2014) and President Clinton (1997-2001). Sperling is the author of The Pro-Growth Progressive (2005) and What Works in Girls' Education: Evidence for the World's Best Investment (2004, 2015); founded the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution; has been a senior economic advisor on multiple presidential campaigns, and was a consultant on NBC's "The West Wing" for four seasons.
Find us on: Apple, Spotify, and Google Play