As Barack Obama takes office, our first priority is to help him revive the economy. But we also have to get America thinking even bigger, and thinking forward about a long-term strategy for prosperity that is sustainable. Please join us on Wednesday, February 11 to move that agenda forward.

The post-bubble economic crisis has led most Americans to reject the conservative mantra that "government is the problem." Today we are demanding that Congress pass a bold economic recovery plan that can spur growth and create jobs. But if we succeed, our job will have just begun. If we don’t want to return to another cycle of speculative bubbles followed by disastrous busts, we need to come up with a bold strategy for sustainable 21st century prosperity.

Please join Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman and other experts and leaders on February 11 for Thinking Big/Thinking Forward: A Conference on America's Economic Future, co-sponsored by The American Prospect, Demos, the Economic Policy Institute, and the Institute for America's Future.

Click here to RSVP for the free event: "Thinking Big, Thinking Forward." This high-visibility conference will go beyond the conventional wisdom about the post-recession economy. And it will challenge the conservative campaign gearing up to demand austerity—and painful cuts to Medicare and Social Security—after the economy recovers.

Instead, we will discuss a new model of renewable economic growth spurred by public investment in clean energy, health care for all, affordable education, and a new 21st-century infrastructure. After years of conservative failure, we need to think as big as the times require in order to seize these opportunities to make us more productive.

Please join us on February 11 for "Thinking Big, Thinking Forward: A Conference on America's Economic Future."

WHAT
"Thinking Big, Thinking Forward: A Conference on America's Economic Future"

WHEN
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.

WHERE
Capital Hilton Hotel
1001 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036

WHO
Sponsored by
The American Prospect
Demos
Economic Policy Institute
Institute for America's Future

Featured speakers include:
Paul Krugman, Princeton University
Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect and Demos
Mark Schmitt, The American Prospect
Robert Borosage, Institute for America’s Future
Miles Rapoport, Demos
Tamara Draut, Demos
Larry Mishel, Economic Policy Institute
*Vice President Joe Biden
Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers
Deepak Bhargava, Center for Community Change
Jeff Madrick, Challenge Magazine and The New School
Alan Brinkley, Columbia University
Janet Gornick, City University of New York
Karen Kornbluh, New America Foundation and Office of the President-elect
Theda Skocpol, Harvard University
Jacob Hacker, University of California, Berkeley
Manuel Pastor, University of Southern California
Ellen Bravo, University of Wisconsin

*invited

http://ga3.org/ct/U1_BpQp1KSk5/>Click here to RSVP for "Thinking Big, Thinking Forward." The event is free but space is limited, so don’t hesitate and reserve your place today.

Join us as we discuss the "New Deal Moment" that we must seize. Be there as we determine how we revitalize our infrastructure, create the clean energy economy, invest in people to build a "High-Wage America" and tackle the political resistance to real change.

As Robert Kuttner recently wrote in American Prospect, "expanded public spending needs to be seen as an eight-year project to restore effective government to a valued role in the economy."

Washington won't think that big unless we think big first. Click here to RSVP, and on Feb. 11th, we will come together to do just that.

Sincerely,

Robert Borosage, Co-Director, Institute for America's Future

Robert Kuttner, Co-Founder & Co-Editor, The American Prospect Senior Fellow, Dçmos

Lawrence Mishel, President, Economic Policy Institute

Miles Rapoport, President, Demos