U.S. economy in 'depression', says prominent former TN official
By Milt Capps
The nation is in an economic 'depression', says economist Pat Choate, the prominent Washington, D.C.-based author and former Tennessee government official.While some call the recent slump a "severe recession," Choate insisted in interviews with VNC this week that the U.S. is "absolutely" experiencing a contraction more severe than even the worst recession. Choate said he bases his pronouncement on such factors as unemployment figures for the past two quarters. The National Bureau of Economic Research neither defines nor reports "depressions," if any. For that and other reasons it is difficult to estimate how much support or resistance might greet Choate's declaration of depression. During Choate's ECD tenure, the nation suffered the first Oil Shock of what proved a troubled decade, and he sparked criticism by launching a campaign for recruitment of foreign investment in Tennessee. Choate noted that Volkswagen was one early target of that effort. TNECD's efforts to recruit foreign investment soon became institutionalized and are today highly valued by most Tennesseans with an opinion. Choate, now 68, has over the years written a number of provocative books and served as running mate to presidential candidate Ross Perot, in 1996. Since 1992, Choate has also operated the Manufacturing Policy Project, a think tank that focuses on U.S. policy regarding manufacturing, patent rights and other intellectual property issues. Earlier this month, he was appointed to the board of directors of the American Innovators for Patent Reform (AIPR). No mere bombshell, Choate's new book also provides what the author views as "game-changing solutions" to the nation's economic decline. Choate provided VNC this description of his recommendations (quoting): ► Impose strict federal supervision of all financial institutions of any form doing business in the United States and provide for an adequate, honestly valued, and sound currency. Choate began his economics career after earning his doctorate at the University of Oklahoma. He has regularly caught the attention of policymakers and Main Street, through his broadcast commentary and his published works, which include an anti-NAFTA book penned with Perot, as well as Agents of Influence, which focused on the influence of lobbyists for foreign interests (publication of which may have cost him the Washington job he held at TRW Inc., until then). Other Choate books include Hot Property: The Stealing of Ideas in an Age of Globalization, The High-Flex Society, America In Ruins, and Being Number One: Rebuilding the U.S. Economy, which respectively addressed protecting intellectual property, competitiveness, infrastructure and U.S. manufacturing. ♦
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