In the wake of the "Great Recession" and the changes it brought, a "better new normal" must be reached by economic policymakers, said Christina Romer, chair of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, at Princeton University on April 17.
Romer gave the opening keynote address at the eighth annual Princeton Colloquium on Public and International Affairs, which included several other experts in economics and public policy. The daylong colloquium, titled "The New Normal? American Policy Making After the Great Recession," examined the challenges and opportunities that the recent economic crisis has created for American policymakers.
Romer stressed reducing the budget deficit and creating new investment opportunities in areas such as clean energy and biotechnology. She said it is important to create more stability than the previous "normal," which was "built on borrowing."
The theme of a structural rebuilding of the American system after the recession was echoed throughout the colloquium, with a variety of speakers commenting on the need to improve economic, financial, congressional and foreign policies.
Jon Corzine, former New Jersey governor and U.S. senator, presented the closing keynote address on "Restoring the Social Contract." Other speakers included Joshua Bolten, former chief of staff to President George W. Bush and a visiting professor at Princeton, and Alan Krueger, a Princeton professor currently on public service leave as assistant U.S. treasury secretary for economic policy.
The event, which was hosted by the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs, was held in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall. Full coverage is available on the Wilson School website.
