Economic Advice for the Next President

C. Fred Bergsten, of the Institute for International Economics, has a piece in the current issue of Foreign Affairs in which he outlines his suggested advice for the next president. It’s a lengthy essay, full of sensible thoughts about needed changes to US international economic policy. Highlights:

A reelected President Bush or his successor will have to design and implement new initiatives to address global economic challenges of the highest national and international priority:

• forging a new domestic consensus in support of globalization;
  
• restoring and maintaining a sustainable external financial position;
  
• reviving trade liberalization;
  
• and freeing the world economy from the manipulation of energy markets by leading producers.
  

He will have to do all of this in a new global economic context, in which a unified Europe, a rising China, and a new Asian bloc are shattering the final vestiges of U.S. economic hegemony.

Take a look at the essay if you have a chance.

Kash