Economic Growth

American politicians have always seen pure profit in siding with the middle class. Bill Clinton invoked the "forgotten middle class"; Richard Nixon called on the "silent majority"; FDR sided with the "forgotten man." In a country where being middle class is a badge of honor and even the super-rich identify themselves as "upper middle class," rare is the candidate who does not claim to speak for the unheard American middle.

To understand the most pressing crisis facing the future of the Middle East, place a job advertisement in a local newspaper. In Tehran, an ad seeking a clerk for a Western company prompted more than 1,000 applications. Included among them: a PhD in economics, a medical doctor, dozens of software engineers and hundreds of Iran's top university graduates. In Cairo, a senior accountant told me he was shocked at the highly educated who applied for a low-level position with his company.

The prime cause of California's steep economic downturn a decade ago -- defense spending -- could emerge as a major contributor to a new boom. With both presidential candidates committed to expanding intelligence, homeland security and military spending, the state stands to gain a large portion of the new federal outlays.

India's failures are legion and impossible to ignore. Poverty and desperation abound. Infant mortality is unacceptably high. Schools and healthcare are substandard -- if available at all. Roads and other infrastructure are primitive or in poor repair. The Indian government seems unable to adequately protect the country's Muslim minority (about 12% of the population) from periodic pogroms, and violence against lower castes erupts regularly. Conflicts with Pakistan over Kashmir continue, made more alarming by the fact that both countries now possess nuclear weapons.

The Wrong Reading

You awaken to news of a morning traffic jam. Leaving home early for a doctor's appointment, you nonetheless arrive too late to find parking. After waiting two hours for a 15-minute consultation, you wait again to have your prescription filled. All the while, you worry about the work you've missed because so many other people would line up to take your job. Returning home to the evening news, you watch throngs of youths throwing stones somewhere in the Middle East, and a feature on disappearing farmland in the Midwest.

In this major policy address, Senator Joe Lieberman unveiled a new strategy for tackling the growing threat from the offshore outsourcing of American jobs. He described what he believes to be the true dimensions of this problem and outlined specific policy proposals for addressing it.

Sen. Lieberman argued that the current political debate on offshore outsourcing misses the underlying structural changes at work, and that only strong bipartisan leadership can save American jobs and restore America's economic strength.

Selected reviews of The Empty Cradle are featured below:

The Dallas Morning News

Sunday, August 22, 2004
"We're not facing a nuclear war or a population bomb, we're facing a depopulation bomb. This isn't just Europe. It's the entire world." That was one of the first things Phillip Longman said when I called to talk about his book, The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity (And What to Do About It) (Basic Books, $26).

In 2002, after a nearly decade-long deadlock, Congress passed the most sweeping international trade legislation in 15 years.

By giving the president authority to negotiate new trade agreements, the United States has begun negotiating free-trade agreements with more than a dozen countries. President Bush has already signed free-trade agreements with Chile and Singapore, and he expects to sign at least two more this year.

The brightest and most original minds in America offer a penetrating analysis of the state of the union and the policy challenges facing the nation as the 2004 election approaches.