Achieve Balanced and Sustainable Growth
Balanced and sustainable growth, at home and throughout the global economy, drives the momentum of the U.S. economy and underpins our prosperity. A steadily growing global economy means an expanding market for exports of our goods and services. Over time, deepening linkages among markets and businesses will provide the setting in which the energies and entrepreneurship of our private sector can flourish, generating technologies, business growth, and job creation that will boost living standards for Americans. United States economic leadership now has to adapt to the rising prominence of emerging economies; the growing size, speed, and sophistication of financial markets; the multiplicity of market participants around the globe; and the struggling economies that have so far failed to integrate into the global system.
To promote prosperity for all Americans, we will need to lead the international community to expand the inclusive growth of the integrated, global economy. At the same time, we will need to lead international efforts to prevent a recurrence of economic imbalances and financial excesses, while managing the many security threats and global challenges that affect global economic stability. To promote growth that can be balanced and sustained, we will:
Prevent Renewed Instability in the Global Economy: The recent crisis taught us the very high cost of the boom and bust cycle that has plagued the global economy and has served neither the United States nor our international partners. Once Americans found themselves in debt or out of work, our demand for foreign goods fell sharply. As foreign economies weakened, their financial institutions and public finances came under stress too, reinforcing the global slowdown. We must prevent the reemergence of imbalanced growth, with American consumers buying and borrowing, and Asian and other exporting countries selling and accumulating claims. We must pursue reform of the U.S. financial system to strengthen the health of our economy and encourage Americans to save more. And we must prevent the reemergence of excesses in our financial institutions based on irresponsible lending behavior, and abetted by lax and uncoordinated regulation.
Save More And Export More: Striking a better balance at home means saving more and spending less, reforming our financial system, and reducing our long-term budget deficit. With those changes, we will see a greater emphasis on exports that we can build, produce, and sell all over the world, with the goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2014. This is ultimately an employment strategy, because higher exports will support millions of well-paying American jobs, including those that service innovative and profitable new technologies. As a part of that effort, we are reforming our export controls consistent with our national security imperatives.