Watch "Fareed Zakaria GPS" Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN.
The deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff” is a small victory for sanity, but what it says about the future is bleak. Washington will lurch from crisis to crisis, kicking problems forward and placing Band-Aids on those that it does address. There are likely to be no large-scale policy initiatives – on tax reform, entitlements, energy policy or probably even immigration reform. This is worrying, because beyond the self-inflicted crises of the cliff and the debt ceiling, the United States faces a much deeper challenge.
For more than a decade now – a many decades, by some measures – America’s growth rates have slowed, recoveries have been jobless and median wages have declined. Some combination of the information revolution and globalization has placed tough pressures on high-wage countries like the United States. These new forces are accelerating, and without a strategy to revive long-term growth, all of our problems get worse, especially our debt. Washington’s focus has been on taxing and cutting – but it should really be on reforming and investing in the American economy.
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Its time to invest in America, you say. Isn't China, J apan and a host of other countries doing that already? Maybe Russia too should joint in that effort!
You're talking about foreign investments in the US. But America has to invest in the country itself, more precisely in the middle class, which is seeing dwindling incomes and loss of jobs.
So, Fareed, America should invest in educating the middle class, improving their working skills, like Germany is doing.
Well,its all well and good to talk about investment;but with the political gridlock in Washington,any investment will be decreed as spending by the other party!!!.
Not Russia! Not Russia! Whatever you do, don't trust them
Why not, Ekaterina? I find the Russian people to be quite honorable. In fact, they were no more the villains in Afghanistan than the current NATO forces are the heroes. Maybe Russia should invest in this country and help out our middle class since our own government is failing miserably in that regard!
You can only invest if you have money. Bankrupt people or countries can not invest-they are lucky to survive.