now, falls to me to bring steve clemens up here. i generally feel silly introducing steve clemens because it turns out that everyone already knows him. steve is, if you do know him, is a man that believed deeply in surfacing the next idea, hearing from as many points of view as possible which is what makes him a perfect fit for the atlantic, he is the editor and chief of guy that brought us all together today. so, steve. >> thank you, james. thank you james. thanks elizabeth baker, and all of the under writers. i want to say that we are being covered by cnbc, and bloomberg, we are livec-span, and we have blogs streaming this live. so those of you tweet, if you like something, tweet it if you hate something, you can tweet it. w we had a dinner preseeding this and david corn, a friend of mine, an msnbc commentator and a good left progressive radical writer and i am sure david would like that, texted me and said, steve fantastic discussion, really varied

on behalf of steve clemens and the atlantic, i want to thank all of you for your participation in this extraordinary conference. it's frankly a privilege to be here. in this conference, we have very specifically tried to include voices from across the spectrum. in some respects you might say that is the purpose of this conference. and we have asked then the very straight forward question, what should we do now? through the day we're hoping to hear different ideas and hopefully some provocative proposals. for my part, i would ask a few questions to keep in mind. has the u.s. private sector already started to reliever, taking impetus away from the need for more stimulus? shouldn't we be making more differentiation anyway between fiscal stimulus that is productive and that which is unproductive? have we properly framed the population question? the most important phenomenon of the last couple of centuries has been the unprecedented population growth. in the many respects the world is build an expectation of high population growth, our defined benefits programs, our social security programs

i'm steve clemens, and as you can hear in my voice, i can't wait till we get to the and i w moderating this panel. the way i know laura hochberg is that she was president clinton's economic adviser and now on a key adviser on the bord of economy for jobs for president obama and i want to start with your days at brie where we read your book on basically how to manage an economy back then and you were, and i see bernard schwartz here in the front of the room, and you were not i would say, bernard schwartz was a acolyte in that sense because you were talking about infrastructure and to some degree industrial policy, and i want to start out with the question of wra we are today and what your experience is today with the clinton and somewhat the obama administrations even though you are an adviser and not an official of the obama administration. what do you think that you wouldn't have thought or given at bre given the government experience. >> of course, nobody in the audience knows what i wrote there so to frame it in a way that relates to what we are hearing today, i was involved early o

i generally feel silly introducing steve clemens because it always turns out everybody already knows ovocative idea, hearing from as many different points of view as possible, which makes him a perfect for "the atlantic." the editor in chief and the guy who brought us all together today. steve? >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you, james. and thank you all of our underwriters. we're being covered today by cnbc, bloomberg, live all day on c-span and many blogs streaming live as well so we have big community outside this room. so those of you tweeting, if you like something, you can tweet it. if you hate something, you can tweet it. the notion -- we had a dinner last night preceding this, and one friend who was there, an msnbc commentator, and kind of a good progressive radical writer, and i'm sure david would like that depiction -- texted me after he heft the dinner and said, steve, fantastic cerebral intellectual discussion, really varied but boy does that did he ever from the politics on the street. i said that's exactly what way don't try to achieve today. demonstrate you cannot on

i generally feel silly introducing steve clemens because everybody already knows him. e, if you do know him, is a man who believes deeply in servicing the next provocative idea and hearing from as many different points of view as possible which is what makes him perfect for the atlantic. he is the editor in chief of our atlantic abroad division and the guy who brought us all together today. steve. >> thank you. i want to say that we are being covered today by cnbc, by bloomberg. we're live all day today on c- span. we have a lot of blogs streaming this as well. we have a big community outside this room. if youf you who tweakeet, like something, you can tweet it, or if you hate it. last night, i was having dinner with an msnbc commentator and a good left radical player. after we left, he said good, fantastic, cerebrum discussion, but boy does that differ from the politics out on the street. that is what we hope to achieve. we want to bring together people with different views on the economy and the effort to fix it, but do so in a way that uplifts the conversation and do

steve clemens, the washington editor at large joins me now. was struck that the president in the west wing. they pick and chew when they want to engage the republicans. we saw it in two different places. he said, good luck tonight. no comment. but when specifically on the issue of iran, they want this debate. that's what struck me about the president. he's like, bring it. it was almost like bring it on. let's have the debate right now. >> the president is sitting behind the oval office desk and awaiting a lot of things. he's wanting to demonstrate that he's presidential weighing the risk against the real challenges of where iran is going. and he's trying to frame and i think they're helping him frame a recklessness in the republican side about, you know, what he's calling loose talk about bombing iran. you have on the republican side a kind of divide between the sort of cautious, realist types in which there are not many, and then the folks that hug dick cheney and john bolton and talk very pugnaciously and aggressively about the various wars

for those of you don't know, i am steve clemens, washington editor of "the atlantic." let peopledon't leave their seats. we do it at your seats and we will do that as regards discussing. we will have staff at the hotel quietly clear your plate. we're not taking a break at this and will proceed first question --"the atlantic"issued what i like to call our money issue. they called the finance issue. ben bernanke was on the cover and i was talking with people who want to see ben bernanke as a villain as opposed to a year and they see ben bernanke as a villain for keeping interest rates so low that either inflation or other baubles are being created. if you were fed chairman say, would you have the fed redware ben bernanke does? >> i am not there so i don't have to beg that great judgment. [laughter] i have a regular practice of from refraining. >> we just want to see if you've given up that practice. >> when i saw that, it reminded me even today -- i occasionally in the streets, someone comes up to me and says you are the whobate - the sob prevented my parents from buying

really good thing when you get to introduce paul volcker at the podium so here is paul volcker and steve clemens who is my colleague at atlantic media. [applause] >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, there was a wholesale introduction and they're all parts of the introduction that for quite elegant. one thing about the introduction, david, i have heard a lot in the introductions over those long years and the introduction stands out as the most recent. [laughter] we have quite a challenge here today. i have for my account when i looked at the program for the twenties reminded economists on the program they come from a range as occupations and then of course only a sampling of all of the professional in this right now. we have collective many years of academical lending to go on. and you would think that the flood of light for something. it keeps coming to my mind with a collection of theirs was unavailable i have to ask how would we ever get into this economic mess hall to get out. it went wrong because i am told that at the end of this program larry summers will be here and yes responsible for al

so here is paul volcker and steve clemens who is my colleague of the atlantic media. [applause] >> thank you, david. it was wonderful. >> ladies and gentlemen, that was a paulson introduction. part of the introduction that made it quite elegant and not the only store in the room. [laughter] i will say one thing about the introduction, david. i've heard of a lot of thought extended into those years and that stands out as the most recent we have quite a challenge here today. i have, you will have but my account when i look at the program, there are plenty strong minded economists in the program and they come from across the intellectual spectrum, they come from a range of occupations, and then of course only a sampling of all the professional tolerance that is in this room right. collected many years of active duty could academic learning and experience to draw upon and you would think that that would count for something. it keeps coming to my mind with all this collection of wisdom available, i have to ask how did we ever get into this economic mess? what is even more