Restoring America’s Promise of Opportunity, Prosperity and Growth: Launch of The Hamilton Project

With global competition increasing and wages stagnating, America’s promise of providing an opportunity for every individual to lead a better life is in jeopardy. To restore this promise, a new economic policy project—backed by leaders from business, academia and public policy—was launched on April 5, 2006. The Hamilton Project is a unique initiative at the Brookings Institution designed to inject new policy options from leading economic thinkers across the country into the national economic debate.

The project was unveiled at a policy briefing featuring remarks by Senator Barack Obama, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and the Reverend Jim Wallis. Project director Peter Orszag, a Brookings senior fellow, moderated the discussion and released a white paper outlining the economic vision and principles of the new project.

The launch also featured the first in a series of policy papers and issue briefings sponsored by the new project. The first three policy options focus on teacher quality, retirement savings, and educational opportunities for low-income students. A question and answer session followed each of the panel discussions.

Moderator:
Peter Orszag
Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

Panel One: Restoring America’s Promise of Opportunity, Prosperity, and Growth

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)

Robert Rubin
Director and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Citigroup Inc.

The Reverend Jim Wallis
Founder, Sojourners; Author, God’s Politics

Panel Two: Innovative Policy Ideas

Molly Fifer
Doctoral Candidate, Princeton University

Jonathan Gruber
Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Austan Goolsbee
Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics, University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business

Robert Gordon
Senior Vice President, Center for American Progress