Bo Cutter Bowman Cutter has been a managing director of Warburg Pincus, a major global private equity firm headquartered in New York City, since 1996. He has served as the firm’s economist and focused on its international business, with particular reference to Asia. From 1981-1993, he was vice chairman and managing partner at Coopers & Lybrand, the global accounting and consulting firm that subsequently merged with Price Waterhouse. Mr. Cutter held a senior economic policy role in the administration of Bill Clinton, whom he served as director of the National Economic Council and as deputy assistant to the president. He also served during the Carter presidency, at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as executive director for budget. Mr. Cutter was the leader of President Obama’s OMB transition team. Mr. Cutter’s central public policy interest is economic policy, in particular issues related to economic growth, development, and the alleviation of poverty. He has worked extensively with the World Bank; he is currently the Chairman of the Board of CARE, the global development organization. He is also a founder and current chairman of MicroVest, a leading global microfinance fund with assets under management now in excess of $100 million, and a member of the governing council of the IFMR Trust, focused on market-based solutions to severe poverty in India. Mr. Cutter holds degrees from Harvard University, the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Straws in the Wind: The 5 Supremes

The discussion of the recent decision quickly degenerated into a charge from the Republicans that President Obama dissed the Supreme Court by stating his disagreement with their money in politics decision and, in addition, had it all wrong anyway. On the other hand, as I have thought about my larger Roosevelt Institute project, The Next American Economy, I’ve realized that climate change, the budget, globalization, the Chinese all pale as problems in comparison to our willful and growing inability to govern ourselves.

An indication of this is the brief article by Senator Orrin Hatch in the Feb 3 Politico. Senator Hatch is…

On Not Wasting a Crisis

Shaping the future with today’s choices.

Rahm Emanuel is famous for saying that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, and then the Administration wasted one. The reason for raising this is not to look back and play whack-a-mole with Rahm or the White House, but to underline a couple of points about the future.

The Administration interpreted “not wasting a crisis” as attempting to do everything at the same time; and to move multiple very large initiatives simultaneously. I know how White House cultures work. Once the President and the Chief of Staff decide on this as the direction, no…

The State of the Union: High Marks for Style and Substance

I intend to write this week on (1)the SOTU; (2) wasting crises; (3) health care; (4) the Court Decision and Justice Alito — at least now we know he isn’t a complete solipsist; and (5) Colombia. I was traveling to Colombia during the speech and could not write immediately on the State of the Union.

So to begin there, I thought the speech was a “10″ on style and tone; and an “8″ on substance. On style and tone there are moments when the man is Roger Federer, he is poetry and zen. He struck the perfect attitude throughout. He delicately…

Obama’s Budget Freeze

Shaping the future with today’s choices.

I genuinely don’t get it.

First, while the freeze is stated as applying to domestic, discretionary budget authority, after allowing for the stimulus package of last year — which raised spending in order to increase the economic growth rate and reduce unemployment, it clearly reduces the effect of the stimulus. And that already looked too small. So the freeze runs directly counter to what turned out to be the signature policy of the administration’s first term. Second, while the numbers are small –  they amount, very roughly, to 1/6th of 1% of GDP per year accumulating year…

Counterpoint: Confirm Ben Bernanke

Shaping the future with today’s choices.

Paul Krugman wrote an excellent piece for the New York Times today arguing with major qualifications for Bernanke’s confirmation for a second term as head of the FED. Considering how well my blog went awhile ago arguing that progressives should get off Geithner’s back, I thought I would jump in here also.

Bernanke should clearly on the merits be reconfirmed. The fact that a couple of senators have walked from him is just life in Washington. He represents an irresistible target, a senator can get 5 minutes worth of media advantage by turning on him, so “hey, its…

The Supreme Court Decision: a few more thoughts

Shaping the future with today’s choices.

Joe Kline ended a recent piece in Newsweek by suggesting that in our poisonous political atmosphere, the appropriate objective may no longer be success, but survival. I agree, but he was talking about Obama and I’m talking about our system. Of course, no one Supreme Court decision can crash our over all system of governance. But if you think — as I do — that our political system is both poisonous and gridlocked, unable to make major decisions, or even to discuss major issues, then a Supreme Court decision that is absolutely guaranteed to make our…

Supreme Court Delivers More Bad News

Shaping the future with today’s choices.

The Supreme Court just voted 5-4 — and yes, all of the votes were the way you would expect — to allow corporations and unions unlimited ability to invest in elections. They didn’t, of course, use the word “invest,” I did. This is really crazy. If you want to answer the question why doesn’t Washington work; or why is our political system in such gridlock; or why do our politicians seem to act the way they do; after you look at everything, the answer is always the same — money in politics. This decision will start…

Haiti, Part 2 - Aftershock report rom CARE staff

Shaping the future with today’s choices.

I thought you would be interested in a report I received yesterday immediately after the big aftershock that hit Port-au-Prince in the morning. This came from CARE staff there, and quotes our security coordinator who was on the roof of a building when the shock hit.

“A 6.1-magnitude aftershock shook Port-au-Prince at 6:30 a.m. local time this morning. We’ve received confirmation that staff staying at the office — as well as staff in the apartments across the street from the office — are safe, but Bogdan Dumitru, our security coordinator on the ground, reported that they are still…

Massachusetts - What Now?

Shaping the future with today’s choices.

This is not the end of the world for President Obama, not even close, but it is the end for this particular health care effort.

For the last couple of weeks, as a Brown win seemed more and more possible, the Democrats in Congress have been discussing how to get this health care legislation through without 60 votes in the Senate — alternatives included slow walking Brown’s certification, voting fast, or sending the Senate bill as it is through the House and directly on to the President. I thought the Democrats would win this one until…

Why Bankers Make So Much $$$

Shaping the future with today’s choices.

Robert Samuelson — the economics columnist for the Washington Post — has an interesting column on Monday asking: why are investment bankers paid so much? And why did they earn so much in the middle of a major recession?

He discounts that they are smarter and better than the rest of us or that they are carrying out a task of absolutely preeminent national importance and looks at what they do specifically. To a degree that most people do not realize — and for sure almost no one in Washington DC today — they do not actually…