In the past few months, economic policy uncertainty has been higher than it has been in the country’s history, marginally surpassing the uncertainty associated with the Great Recession, September 11, 2001, and even the Great Depression. The United States faces a number of fundamental challenges: entitlement reform, healthcare, economic growth, race relations, geopolitical instability in the Middle East and Russia, and environmental degradation just to name a few.
Trump’s ascendancy to the presidency fundamentally disrupts the business-as-usual tradition in Washington. While there is concern, there is also significant opportunity for genuine and long-lasting improvement, and in a bipartisan way. Motivated by the remarks in his victory speech, Trump should continue to provide an olive branch to Democrats for cooperation. …
In the first 100 days, Trump has the opportunity to craft a bipartisan plan that engages the private sector on ways to reach back out to millions of disenfranchised workers. One example of this is Skillful.com, a platform that Arizona State University is producing through the support of the Markle Foundation. The platform provides individuals with the tools and information to not only connect with jobs that are potentially more aligned with their skills but also re-train themselves with new skills, for example, by taking community college classes and pivoting into a new career. Trump can encourage these types of initiatives directly by subsidizing human capital investments and indirectly by providing the authority behind the Office of the President.
