SEARCH: Aspen Economic Strategy Group

The Surprising Resilience of Globalization: An Examination of Claims of Economic Fragmentation

This paper evaluates the current landscape of global trade and financial flows and proposes a set of reforms to support healthier forms of integration. Brad Setser finds that, despite the growing, bipartisan skepticism about the value of liberal trade, global economic integration remains surprisingly resilient. In fact, Setser argues, the immediate risk facing the global ...

Eight Questions—and Some Answers—on the US Fiscal Situation

In this paper, Jason Furman addresses eight specific questions essential to understanding the US fiscal situation and what policymakers can do to address the federal debt. He finds that an adjustment of between 0.7 and 4.6 percent of GDP is necessary to stabilize the debt over the next decade, and he proposes a broad set ...

State Capacity for Building Infrastructure

This paper, by Zachary Liscow, examines state capacity for infrastructure construction in the United States. It identifies three elements of state capacity that drive up costs and slow down timelines: insufficient personnel, onerous procedures, and a lack of adequate tools. Liscow offers specific suggestions about ways to address these challenges and improve US public capacity ...

Why Crime Matters, and What to Do About It

In this paper, Jennifer Doleac describes what is known about crime trends in the US and outlines the best evidence to date on the effectiveness of various approaches to reducing crime through prevention, deterrence, and rehabilitation.  Crime in the US rose during the 1980s and early 1990s before declining steadily until 2020. During the COVID-19 ...

Strengthening America’s Economic Dynamism

The Aspen Economic Strategy Group’s seventh annual policy volume focuses on the theme, Strengthening America’s Economic Dynamism. The volume’s publication comes at a time when US policymakers are turning away from free-market principles in favor of protectionist policies and more active government-directed industrial policy. These shifts, combined with growing economic and political difficulties including the ...

Aspen Economic Strategy Group Welcomes New Members

Aspen Economic Strategy Group Welcomes New Members Leading policymakers, business executives, and academics join bipartisan group dedicated to promoting evidence-based solutions to America’s economic challenges. WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 12, 2025 – The Aspen Economic Strategy Group (AESG) today announced that eleven new members have joined the bipartisan group of distinguished leaders and thinkers who are ...

Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

HANK PAULSON is the founder and chairman of the Paulson Institute, which aims to foster a US-China relationship that maintains global order in a rapidly evolving world. He is executive chairman of TPG Rise Climate, the climate investing platform of the global private equity firm TPG. Paulson is also the co-chair of the Aspen Economic ...

Erskine Bowles

ERSKINE B. BOWLES began his business career at Morgan Stanley and went on to found and lead Bowles, Hollowell, Conner, which became the preeminent investment bank focused on middle market mergers and acquisitions. He subsequently co-founded the middle market private equity firm Carousel Capital, served as a senior advisor for Credit Suisse First Boston, was ...

Timothy F. Geithner

Timothy Geithner serves as Chairman of Warburg Pincus. Before joining Warburg Pincus, Timothy served as the 75th Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2009 to 2013. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2003 to 2009. He began his U.S. government ...