Where Now for the U.S. Economy?
Domestic Public Investment, Foreign Direct Investment and America’s Position in the World
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September 22, 2005
Investment banker and former ambassador to France, Felix G. Rohatyn, assesses our country’s economic outlook, including the critical need for domestic investment in public infrastructure and the need for foreign investment in the U.S. Ambassador Rohatyn will discuss a national strategy for growth and security, given Hurricane Katrina’s massive destruction, our complex financial and trade relations with China, India and Europe, and the Bush administration’s current economic policies.
Video & Transcript
• Transcript: Full text (PDF)
• Intro: Video
• Speech: Video
• Q and A: Video
Note: All videos provided in QuickTime (MPEG-4) format.
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| Panelists |
 Ambassador Felix G. Rohatyn serves as President of Rohatyn Associates LLC, a firm that he founded in April 2001, which provides financial advice to corporations. Mr. Rohatyn served as United States Ambassador to France from September 11, 1997 until December 28, 2000. Born in Vienna, Austria on May 29, 1928, Ambassador Rohatyn received his secondary school education in France. He has lived in the United States since 1942 and resides in New York City. Prior to his appointment as Ambassador in Paris, Mr. Rohatyn was a Managing Director of the investment banking firm Lazard Frères & Co. LLC in New York, which he joined in 1948, becoming a partner in 1961. He retired from the firm in 1997 in order to take up his post as U.S. Ambassador to France. From 1975 to 1993, he was also Chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) of the State of New York, where he managed the negotiations that enabled New York City to resolve its financial crisis in the late seventies. He served as a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Stock Exchange from 1968 to 1972. He served on the Board of Directors of several NYSE listed corporations. He is a Trustee of the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, DC, and is presently on the Board of Comcast Corporation, Philadelphia, PA; Fiat S.p.A., Turin, Italy; Suez, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, and Publicis Groupe S.A. in France. Ambassador Rohatyn received his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Middlebury College, Vermont in 1949 and has also been awarded numerous honorary degrees. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, was Vice-Chairman of Carnegie-Hall, and is a member of many other non-profit organizations. He is a Commander in the French Legion of Honor. Married to Elizabeth Fly Rohatyn, he is the father of three children. Mrs. Rohatyn is former Chairman of the New York Public Library. She has one daughter. |
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 John Podesta is the President and CEO of the Center for American Progress and visiting Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. Podesta served as Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton from October 1998 until January 2001, where he was responsible for directing, managing, and overseeing all policy development, daily operations, Congressional relations, and staff activities of the White House. He coordinated the work of cabinet agencies with a particular emphasis on the development of federal budget and tax policy, and served in the President’s Cabinet and as a Principal on the National Security Council. From 1997 to 1998 he served as both an Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff. Earlier, from January 1993 to 1995, he was Assistant to the President, Staff Secretary and a Senior Policy Adviser on government information, privacy, telecommunications security and regulatory policy. Podesta previously held a number of positions on Capitol Hill including: Counselor to Democratic Leader Senator Thomas A. Daschle; Chief Counsel for the Senate Agriculture Committee; Chief Minority Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittees on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks; Security and Terrorism; and Regulatory Reform; and Counsel on the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Podesta is a gradu |
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