Jennifer Harris, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, was an international economist on the policy planning staff at the State Department from 2008 to 2014.
To help expand and sustain America’s middle class, U.S. foreign policy makers need a new agenda that will rebuild trust at home and abroad.
As millions of Americans contend with lost wages and savings due to the coronavirus, the challenge of making U.S. foreign policy work harder for the middle class is even more vital.
While the U.S. economy has been growing and unemployment rates have fallen, too many Americans still struggle to sustain a middle-class lifestyle. Are changes to U.S. foreign policy required to better advance the economic well-being of America’s middle class?
Policymakers need to explore ways to make U.S. foreign policy work better for America’s middle class, even if their economic fortunes depend largely on domestic factors and policies.
U.S. political leaders—Democrats and Republicans alike—must start prioritizing workers, consumers, and the middle class, rather than making the world safe for corporate investment.
Since the start of the financial crisis, questions about sovereign wealth funds, which had $3.9 trillion in assets in 2008, have been at the forefront of discussions regarding financial stability and global politics.
