Video: The 50-Year Decline and Fall of the American Economy, and the Path Forward, May 29, 2025
June 4, 2025
The May 29 national Zoom Town Hall, “The 50-Year Decline and Fall of the American Economy, and the Path Forward,” sponsored by the Coalition for a National Infrastructure Bank, provided a platform for a most-timely and crucial discussion on the future of America and the two- party system. The Town Hall included nationally renown leaders, Ellen Brown, Esq., Author and Founder Public Banking Institute; Robert Kuttner, Brandeis University Professor and Co-Editor of The American Prospect; and Alan Minsky, former journalist and Executive Director, Progressive Democrats of America.
The United States is now at a branching point. Either we continue down the path of economic destruction, exemplified by the brutal austerity of the Trump Administration and the Congress, or we reverse gears and return to the infrastructure and manufacturing programs last implemented by the Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Kennedy, and even, the Eisenhower governments. If we fail to embrace the “American System” policy of these presidents, our fate is sealed.
Robert Kuttner and Alan Minsky have written, lectured, and published extensively on the shift in principles that occurred following the death of John Kennedy and the downfall of Lyndon Johnson. Professor Kuttner is a leading expert on the policies of Franklin Roosevelt.
In 1970, we were still the greatest economy in the world. We were the manufacturing and infrastructure leader. That has been largely dismantled.
Hostile ideologies were promulgated by the perpetrators, including deregulation, unlimited free trade, denigrating the positive role of government, brutal austerity, and neo-liberalism. The latter doctrine infected both political parties, from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton.
The results have been deadly: a dramatic increase in income inequality, the takeover of the financial system by the worst Wall Street actors, replacing the producer economy with a consumer economy, etc. It was a short step to the victory of Donald Trump and his cronies.
The Coalition for a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) has been building support for a new Franklin Roosevelt program. The $5 trillion NIB legislation had 48 sponsors in the 118th Congress, and a new bill is in preparation. Support resolutions continue to be introduced and adopted by state and county governments nationwide. A recent op-ed in USA Today from a New Jersey Republican Assemblyman urges Congress to adopt the NIB.
It is time to extirpate the corrosive ideas that have infected our government. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, let us return to the policies that once made us the envy of the world.
Please watch this urgent exchange of ideas
and spread the word to your friends and colleagues. Find out the policy strategy to move our country forward.
Speakers:
Alphecca Muttardy, former Senior Economist, International Monetary Fund, Fairfax, VA
Robert Kuttner, Brandeis University professor of social policy, and Co-editor of The American Prospect, Boston, MA
Alan Minsky, Executive Director, Progressive Democrats of America, Los Angeles, CA
Ellen Brown, Esq., author and Founder, Public Banking Institute, Los Angeles, CA
Honorable Randolph Voller, former Mayor Pittsboro, NC; former Chair North Carolina Democratic Party, Pittsboro, NC
Moderator: Jack Hanna, former Treasurer and Chair Pennsylvania Democratic Party, Indiana, PA
