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Seven recommendations are offered for the Obama Administration to ensure that the economy is on a robust growth path over the next decade. These recommendations are intended as first steps towards building the innovation-based public-private partnerships needed to drive economic growth and prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explains the relationship between the components of the Kansas City Financial Stress Index (KCFSI) and financial stress in the U.S. It states that high values of the KCFSI have seem to coincide with known periods of financial stress and offer important information about future economic growth. The article also discusses a set of financial variables, explores the link between the KCFSI and economic activities, and examines how the KCFSI can be used in determining the severity of financial stress.

Over the past two decades, in a constantly changing global economy, local economic development programs and activities have grown in prominence as cities and metropolitan areas across the country have struggled to strengthen their economic base and increase job opportunities for their populations. Although local governments are expected to play a more proactive role in building their economies, the reality of global competition is that government cannot go it alone. Governments are important in helping to shape the local business environment, but so are companies, colleges and universities, and many other local institutions. A potentially significant component of collaborative networks are university-based, graduate-level policy and management programs that can equip economic development officials with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively respond to the heightened level of competition brought on by the new global economy. This article analyzes how current graduate-level public administration (MPA) programs are responding to these challenges based on a survey of economic development specializations in MPA programs in the United States. The article describes the general direction and focus of economic development specializations offered in MPA programs in the United States and the extent to which MPA economic development specializations are addressing specific "core competencies" in the knowledge and skills of economic development professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a quarter century of environmental regulation in this country, significant environmental threats remain. Why has the regulatory system failed to fully address our environmental problems? The goal of this paper is to suggest that the roots of environmental problems, and the failure of environmental regulation, are deeply embedded in the processes that generate economic growth. The logic of the argument to be presented will take the following form: long-run economic growth relies on the creation of new industries and new forms of economic activity; these new forms of economic activity create new kinds of environmental problems; these new forms of economic activity constitute vested political interests that oppose environmental regulation. Each of the three main sections of the paper will provide theoretical and empirical justification for each component part of the basic argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent studies have described in some detail the factors limiting development in major countries.[3] Each shows the external sector to have been a critical element in explaining past difficulties and in determining future prospects. In addition, each points to a number of internal limitations and gives some analysis of the interaction between the two sets of factors. The present paper will utilize some of the insights from these studies to develop an aggregative model that brings out the relations between the internal and external factors in economic development. The model will be used for three purposes: (1) to interpret recent development performance, (2) to indicate in quantitative terms some of the requirements of accelerated growth, and (3) to provide a framework for the discussion of alternatives facing the United States and the Latin American countries. One section of the paper is devoted to each of these topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the need for constructive analysis, planning, and policy to promote regional economic growth in the southern states of the U.S. The prospects and possibilities for the South's economic development are, of course, closely linked with growth of and changes in the national economy. During the past two decades, the South has shared increasingly well in national economic growth, and similar promise holds for the future. Although there are thus grounds for optimism, the expected improvement could presumably be made greater and more certain. The present momentum of Southern economic development provides a strong driving force which may be harnessed by special and concerted efforts to secure continued advance. Too much emphasis can hardly be placed on the productivity of the South's labor force in terms of its aptitudes, mobility, and employability. For several decades, the South has had somewhat more than its share of low productivity industry. Low-productivity areas are necessarily low-wage, low-income areas as well. A revealing example is the cotton-growing region of the South in which farms are typically too small, under-equipped, and poorly managed to be profitable. Such factors as the one-crop system, sharecropping, race, and an inadequate system of rural credit work in combination to reduce the productivity and cash incomes of these far too numerous farmers.

The article presents information on Great Salt Lake, Utah. Interest in the Great Salt Lake has increased recently because its potential economic resources appear to be close to realization. Economic development will bring problems as well as profit and, in this respect, the Great Salt Lake may be considered a microcosm of what is happening in other areas of economic growth. The map of Great Salt Lake thus takes on a larger meaning in the battle between economics and ecology. The prospect of recovering a vast reserve of important chemicals has stimulated activity in government and business.