Episodes

Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
The Economic and Budgetary Challenges of Climate Change
Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
Wednesday Apr 20, 2022
This week on Facing the Future we look at the potential budgetary and economic effects of climate change. Hint: They aren't good. Our guest is Brian Keane, President of SmartPower, a nonprofit organization focused on renewable energy. Then we discuss whether the Fed can slow inflation without throwing the economy into recession. Tori Gorman and Steve Robinson weigh in.

Wednesday Apr 13, 2022
Students Tackle the Debt and Inflation Remains High
Wednesday Apr 13, 2022
Wednesday Apr 13, 2022
This week on Facing the Future we look at the latest inflation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that prices are still growing at the fastest pace since the early 80s. Then we'll hear from a group of college students who recently took part in a nationwide Fiscal Challenge competition where they had to devise and defend their own plans for putting (or keeping) the U.S. on a sustainable fiscal path.

Wednesday Apr 06, 2022
Revisiting Immigration in Light of the Ukraine Crisis
Wednesday Apr 06, 2022
Wednesday Apr 06, 2022
This week on Facing the Future, with millions of new refugees fleeing war-torn Ukraine, we revisit immigration - vital to sustained American economic growth over the next 50 years. Our guests are Ali Noorani, President and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, and George Bruno, an immigration lawyer and former US Ambassador to Belize

Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
Sizing Up the Biden Budget
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
This week on Facing the Future we take a close look at President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget. Concord's Policy Director Tori Gorman and Chief Economist Steve Robinson join me to assess how the budget measures up against a set of criteria we put out in advance of the budget's release. There's some good news and some bad news.

Wednesday Mar 23, 2022
Facing the Future in America’s Heartland
Wednesday Mar 23, 2022
Wednesday Mar 23, 2022
This week, Facing the Future goes "On the Road" to Ball State University in Indiana to hear from students and community members on how they might propose to put the federal budget on a more sustainable path. We also hear from two national experts: Ben Ritz of the Progressive Policy Institute and Josh Gordon of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
National Debt Outlook After Two Years of COVID
Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
This week on Facing the Future, excerpts from a recent panel discussion focusing on the national debt outlook and changing views on the role of government two years into the pandemic. Panelists are Brian Reidl of the Manhattan Institute and Wendy Edelberg of the Brookings Institution, moderated by award winning journalist and author Laura Knoy.

Wednesday Mar 09, 2022
Fallout from the Russian Invasion
Wednesday Mar 09, 2022
Wednesday Mar 09, 2022
This week on Facing the Future we look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its implications for the U.S. and world economies. Our guest is former Congressman Richard Swett (D-NH), who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark (a NATO member) from 1998 to 2001. Then we turn our attention back to Washington where Congress is still trying to wrap-up a funding deal for this year, including additional COVID relief and aid for Ukraine.

Tuesday Mar 01, 2022
Inflating the Budget, and Three Healthcare Myths
Tuesday Mar 01, 2022
Tuesday Mar 01, 2022
This week on Facing the Future we'll talk with Richard Jackson, president of the Global Aging Institute, about his new paper, Three Myths about Health Care Reform. The paper explains why cost control of federal health benefit programs is critical to the nation's fiscal future. Then we'll look at the effect of rising inflation on the federal budget.

Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
Leadership in Time of Crisis
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
This week on Facing the Future we talk about political leadership in a time of crisis with David Gergen, adviser to four presidents and professor of public service Harvard’s Kennedy School. With the COVID pandemic lingering, inflation becoming a problem for the first time in decades and a Cold War style crisis in Europe, Gergen has some advice on crisis management for the current president. He also explains why he is hopeful that a new crop of young leaders will rise to the many challenges we face, including slow-moving crises such as climate change and unsustainable debt.

Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
Acting Short and Thinking Long
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
This week on Facing the Future as Congress deals with yet another shutdown threat, we’ll talk about the broken federal budget process with David Lerman, Editor of CQ Budget, Then, I'll look back on Paul Tsongas' victory in the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary with Brian Keane, President of SmartPower, who was a key staffer on the Tsongas campaign and later became The Concord Coalition's field director.