Appendix B: About the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy
Economic uncertainty is a disruptive force in American life. Too many families are unable to achieve the life they want despite their best efforts, too many communities have not benefited fully from national economic growth, and too many Americans believe the economy does not work for people like them. In a 2021 Pew Research Center survey, 66 percent felt that the nation’s economy needs major reforms, while just 6 percent felt it should remain unchanged. Coupled with the current challenges facing American democracy, these trends contribute to the growing distrust of political and economic institutions. While it often seems that the nation cannot agree on much, there is widespread agreement that changes are needed to bolster opportunity and to allow more Americans to share in the nation’s prosperity.
The specific policies needed to reform the economy, and the values that should inform those policies, are subject to intense disagreement. With this challenge in mind, the Çï¿ûÊÓƵ launched the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy (CORE) in October 2021. The goal of the Commission is to rethink the principles, metrics, narratives, and policies that shape the nation’s political economy. While policymakers and journalists often track how the economy is doing, the Commission seeks to direct a focus onto how Americans are doing, elevating the human stakes of our economic and political systems.
The interdisciplinary and crosspartisan Commission comprises scholars, journalists, artists, and leaders from the faith, labor, business, and philanthropic communities. A premise of the Commission’s work is that questions of political economy are inextricable from conversations about democracy. Individual well-being is not simply a matter of dollars and cents. Other factors need to be accounted for, particularly the degree to which people feel that their voice is valued. The widespread belief that the economy does not give everyone a fair chance threatens the nation’s social fabric and its constitutional democracy.
To that end, the Commission builds on Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century. That report acknowledges that economic conditions influence public faith in government, political participation, and civic engagement. While Our Common Purpose does not offer recommendations specifically targeted at economic issues, Advancing a People-First Economy faces these issues head on.
Through listening sessions, data collection, and a commitment to crosspartisan work, the Commission has developed bold, achievable recommendations that rethink the values that should drive the economy and advance practices and policies that would enable opportunity, mobility, and security for all.
Commission Members
K. Daron Acemoglu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Elizabeth S. Anderson
University of Michigan
Cornell William Brooks
Harvard Kennedy School
Whitney Kimball Coe
Center for Rural Strategies
Jane Delgado
National Alliance for Hispanic Health
James M. Fallows
Our Towns Civic Foundation
Helene D. Gayle
Spelman College
Jacob S. Hacker
Yale University
Tom Hanks
Actor and Filmmaker
Mary Kay Henry
Service Employees International Union
Kelly Lytle Hernández
University of California, Los Angeles
Megan Minoka Hill
Ash Center, Harvard Kennedy School
Reid G. Hoffman
Greylock Partners
Serene Jones
Union Theological Seminary
Julius Krein
American Affairs
Goodwin H. Liu
Supreme Court of California
Maya MacGuineas
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
James M. Manyika
Google-Alphabet
Katherine S. Newman
University of California
Viet Thanh Nguyen
University of Southern California
David W. Oxtoby
American Çï¿ûÊÓƵ of Arts and Sciences
Sarah Ruger
Stand Together
Ruth Simmons
Prairie View A&M University
Matthew J. Slaughter
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
Anna Deavere Smith
New York University Tisch School of the Arts
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Columbia University
Michael R. Strain
American Enterprise Institute
Mark Neil Trahant
Indian Country Today
Kenneth L. Wallach
Central National Gottesman, Inc.
Çï¿ûÊÓƵ Staff who helped prepare Advancing a People-First Economy
Phyllis S. Bendell
Editor in Chief
Key Bird
Assistant Editor
Jonathan D. Cohen
Joan and Irwin Jacobs Senior Program Officer for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good
Kelsey Ensign
Louis W. Cabot Fellow
Alison Franklin
Chief Communications Officer
Katherine Gagen
Program Associate for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good
Eduardo Gonzalez
Program Officer for Civil Justice
Darshan Goux
Program Director for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good
Victor Lopez
Program Associate for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good
Tania Munz
Chief Program Officer
Scott Raymond
Creative Director
Peter Robinson
Morton L. Mandel Director of Strategic Implementation
Betsy Super
Program Director for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good
Peter Walton
Associate Editor
Elizabeth Youngling
Carl & Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Fellow