But the argument that Obama made last night was not the traditional one. It was rather, an ambitious and strikingly brainy argument. It built on a growing body of economic evidence showing how a strong middle class and less income inequality aren’t just nice-sounding goals, but also the keystone for long-term economic growth in a developed economy.

Obama’s vision of how the economy works stands in stark opposition to Florida Sen. Mark Rubio, who argued that the opportunity to make it to the middle class comes from a free economy “where people can risk their own money to open a business,” he said. “And when they succeed, they hire more people, who in turn invest or spend the money they make, helping others start a business and create jobs.”

There is no question that a competitive economy needs an appetite for risk. But outside of the mantra of more tax cuts for those at the top and less “regulation” — a perennially vague enemy whose opponents rarely define it more specifically — he did not offer a strong argument on behalf of policies and rules that would make it more likely for people to identify and take risks that become thriving businesses. If business relies on customers above all, the primary concern for entrepreneurs should be the great stagnation of their most important customer base: the American middle class.

The president’s speech explicitly pointed to a variety of ways that government could encourage strong economic growth by supporting a strong middle class and how these investments would enable more risk-taking, support economic demand, and create profitable opportunities.

Let’s start with demand. The president argued that we should raise the minimum wage from $7.75 to $9.00 an hour because “for businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets.” There is a strong theoretical economic argument that higher minimum wages eliminate cheap work that might have been done below minimum wage. But the weight of economic evidence from decades of intensive study finds that raising the minimum wage doesn’t raise unemployment. Instead, the principle effect is to make low-income workers richer.

Read more at the Atlantic.

Mr. Silvers is a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Standing Advisory Group, the Financial Accounting Standards Board User Advisory Council, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Corporate Governance Task Force, the New York Stock Exchange’s Stock Options Voting Task Force and was a member of the Advisory Committee on Analyst Independence to the House Capital Markets Subcommittee. He is a member of the American Bar Association’s Subcommittee on International Corporate Governance. Mr. Silvers received his J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School. He received his M.B.A. with high honors from Harvard Business School and is a Baker Scholar. Mr. Silvers is a graduate of Harvard College, summa cum laude, and has studied history at Kings College, Cambridge University.

His 1989 book Market Volatility (MIT Press) is a mathematical and behavioral analysis of price fluctuations in speculative markets. His 1993 book Macro Markets: Creating Institutions for Managing Society’s Largest Economic Risks (Oxford University Press) proposes a variety of new risk-management contracts, such as futures contracts in national incomes or securities based on real estate that would permit the management of risks to standards of living. His book Irrational Exuberance (Princeton 2000, Broadway Books 2001, 2nd edition Princeton 2005) is an analysis and explication of speculative bubbles, with special reference to the stock market and real estate. His book The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century (Princeton University Press, 2003) is an analysis of an expanding role of finance, insurance, and public finance in our future. His book Subprime Solution: How the Global Financial Crisis Happened and What to Do about It, published in September 2008 by Princeton University Press, offers an analysis of the housing and economic crisis and a plan of action against it. He co-authored, with George A. Akerlof, Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism published in March 2009 by Princeton University Press. He co-authored with Randall Kroszner Reforming U.S. Financial Markets: Reflections before and beyond Dodd-Frank published in March 2011 by MIT Press.

Dr. Roubini has extensive policy experience as well as broad academic credentials. From 1998 to 2000, he served as the senior economist for international affairs on the White House Council of Economic Advisors and then as the senior advisor to the undersecretary for international affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department, helping to resolve the Asian and global financial crises. The International Monetary Fund, World Bank and numerous other prominent public and private institutions have drawn upon his consulting expertise.

He has published over 70 theoretical, empirical and policy papers on international macroeconomic issues and coauthored the books “Political Cycles: Theory and Evidence” (MIT Press, 1997) and “Bailouts or Bail-ins? Responding to Financial Crises in Emerging Markets” (Institute for International Economics, 2004) and “Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance” (Penguin Press, 2010).

Dr. Roubini’s views on global economic issues are widely cited by the media, and he is a frequent commentator on various business news programs. He has been the subject of extended profiles in the New York Times Magazine and other leading current-affairs publications. The Financial Times has provided extensive coverage of Dr. Roubini’s perspectives.

He is also a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., a co-founder of BaselineScenario.com (a much cited website on the global economy), a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Economic Advisers, and a member of the FDIC’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee.

Prof. Johnson is a weekly contributor to NYT.com’s Economix, is a regular Bloomberg columnist, has a monthly article with Project Syndicate that runs in publications around the world, and has published high impact opinion pieces recently in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New Republic, BusinessWeek, and The Financial Times, among other places. In January 2010, he joined The Huffington Post as contributing business editor. Professor Johnson is the co-author, with James Kwak, of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and The Next Financial Meltdown, a bestselling assessment of the dangers now posed by the US financial sector (published March 2010) and White House Burning:  The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt and Why it Matters to You (April 2012).

In his roles as a professor, research fellow and author, Johnson’s speaking engagements include paid appearances before various business groups, including financial institutions and other companies, as well before other groups that may have a political agenda. He is not on the board of any company, does not currently serve as a consultant to anyone, and does not work as an expert witness or conduct sponsored research. His investment portfolio comprises cash and broadly diversified mutual funds; he does not trade stocks, bonds, derivatives or other financial products actively.

From March 2007 through the end of August 2008, Johnson was the International Monetary Fund’s Economic Counsellor (chief economist) and Director of its Research Department. He is a co-director of the NBER Africa Project, and works with non-profits and think tanks around the world.

In 2009, she co-chaired a task force within Americans for Financial Reform that helped shape key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  In 2008, she served as the Deputy Policy Director in charge of Domestic and Economic Policy with the John Edwards for President campaign, helping craft that campaign’s agenda-setting policies to end poverty, halt global climate change, reform financial services, and other far-reaching aims.  She holds a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law

Draut’s research has been covered by dozens of newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Her writing has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The American Prospect, TheBostonGlobe and TheBostonReview. She is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the Colbert Report, Today Show, ABC World News Tonight, CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight and Fox News.

First the national picture. In September the unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent, its lowest point since President Obama took office in late January 2009. As he was sworn in, the economy was shedding jobs at an unprecedented rate of more than 20,000 jobs each day. The job losses continued at a rapid pace until he signed the Recovery Act into law, after which the pace slowed. The economy began adding, not losing, jobs each month by March 2010.

That the unemployment rate is back down below 8 percent is a testament to the success of this and other policies implemented by the Obama administration and the 111th Congress, which was in session in 2009 and 2010. The Recovery Act stemmed the tide of job losses by investing in infrastructure, developing green energy, providing aid to states for education, and extending unemployment benefits for Americans laid off or unable to find work. Congress approved approximately $800 billion in spending, all of which helped stimulate the ailing economy and get Americans back to work.

Read more at Center for American Progress.

Herbert has numerous awards, including the Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City, the American Society of Newspaper Editors award for distinguished newspaper writing, the David Nyhan Prize from the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University for excellence in political reporting, and the Ridenhour Courage Prize for the “fearless articulation of unpopular truths.”

Reich is currently Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He was formerly a professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of social and economic policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management of Brandeis University. He has also been a contributing editor of The New Republic, The American Prospect (also chairman and founding editor), Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Reich is a political commentator on programs including Hardball with Chris Matthews, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CNBC’s Kudlow & Company, and APM’s Marketplace. In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the Ten Best Cabinet Members of the century, andThe Wall Street Journal in 2008 placed him sixth on its list of the “Most Influential Business Thinkers”. He was appointed a member of President-elect Barack Obama’s economic transition advisory board. 

He has published 14 books, including the best-sellers, The Work of Nations, Reason,Supercapitalism, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future, and a best-selling e-book, “Beyond Outrage”. He is also chairman of Common Cause and writes his own blog about the political economy at robertreich.org.

Jeffrey Sachs examine a new report in The Economist that once again says the numbers for Mitt Romney’s tax cuts and Paul Ryan’s budget plan just don’t add up with Martin Bashir on MSNBC, October 9th, 2012.

Governor Romney’s economic growth plan, based on massive tax cuts, is at best an impartial solution and at worst ineffective, given what “math, common sense, and our history” have taught us about trickle-down economics.

Interestingly, President Obama hit the high point among undecided voters when he talked about “investments in America.” Unfortunately for the president, he did not offer much beyond this. But these three words are the secret to unlocking the door to our economic and societal prosperity.

Read more at the Huffington Post.

Ms. Chettiar focuses on using economics and cost-benefit analysis to demonstrate that helping struggling communities can help the country as a whole achieve economic and social prosperity. She is listed in the national directory as a Top Wonk in criminal justice, economic policy, and race and economics. Her scholarship focuses on viewing policies as investments that lawmakers should evaluate based on what economic and societal benefits they produce. She received this training at NYU Law School’s Institute for Policy Integrity, where she led litigation and policy projects using cost-benefit analysis to reform a variety of federal laws.

Most recently, Ms. Chettiar applied these practices to achieve criminal justice reform while at the American Civil Liberties Union. She was one of the lead architects of the organization’s nationwide Initiative to End Overincarceration. She created comprehensive state legislative strategies, authored legislation to reduce prison populations and costs and helped create national and local bipartisan coalitions to successfully enact legislation.

Ms. Chettiar also served as a litigation associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where she ledpro bono cases on racial justice and criminal law. She was also a judicial law clerk to the Hon. Lawrence M. McKenna at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Her reform efforts and publications have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, MSNBC.com, NPR, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Guardian, Forbes,and other outlets. She has published extensive scholarship on economic and fiscal policy, criminal law reform, and racial inequalities. In 2011, she was selected by the Center for American Progress as a Leadership Fellow for her groundbreaking leadership on the legal intersection of race and economics.

Ms. Chettiar holds a B.A. cum laude in political science and psychology from Georgetown University and a J.D. cum laude from the University of Chicago School of Law, where she served as Comment Editor of The Law Review. She is a member of the Society for Benefit Cost Analysis and American Correctional Association, and sits on the U.S. Department of Justice Pretrial Justice Task Force and the American Law Institute Model Penal Code Committee, which drafts model criminal codes for enactment in states.