The 100-Day Economic Agenda

Must Deliver Tough Message Quickly

MY FIRST foreign policy priority," said Bill Clinton, "will be to restore America’s economic vitality." In recognizing the inescapable link between economic strength at home and influence abroad the president-elect may not only improve the lives of millions of Americans but help many nations abroad that are counting on renewed and confident leadership from Washington. The task is far more complicated and difficult than Clinton has made it out to be. First, the president-elect has not prepared the nation for the sacrifices that lie ahead if America’s trajectory is to turn upward. Second, he has yet to explain the complex obstacles to restarting the American economy in the face of a recession in Japan and Europe. Third, he has yet to confront the delicate problem of pleasing powerful international financial markets, which are all too ready to unleash their fury at the administration’s first fiscal misstep.

Now that the election is over, however, the new president will have to move extremely quickly to deliver the tough message and to make a series of agonizing decisions. In the CNN age, when indelible impressions are instantaneously formed around the world, and when Wall Street and its foreign counterparts can bring policymakers to their knees overnight, Clinton’s first 100 days are not just an opportunity to unfold a new agenda. Rather they just as equally present a minefield that could blow up and damage his administration for the next four years.

Clinton’s immediate priorities should be both offensive and defensive, and defined in terms that are crystal clear: to attack the cancerous budget deficit and simultaneously calm the financial markets, and to work with Japan and Germany on a global growth package that includes economic stimulus, trade promotion and currency stability.

How Will Programs Be Financed?

IN HIS HUNDREDS of position papers and substantive speeches Clinton has painted a picture of an America not only mired in recession but faltering for almost two decades in its ability to generate decent jobs. It is a picture not just of current pain but of anxieties about the future. To reverse this vision of America the president-elect has identified several critical requirements, foremost of which is the need for new policies to enhance America’s economic competitiveness.