Clinton Pushes Globally Shared Responsibilities as the Future
NEW YORK — Former President Bill Clinton, who was the keynote speaker at the 101st annual National Retail Federation Conference and Expo, noted that we live in a turbulent economy right now but stressed that business leaders should remain optimistic while not minimizing their challenges.
“We live in a highly unstable world right now,” he said, speaking Monday at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where thousands of retailers, including those in the apparel industry, were attending the four-day conference, which began Jan. 15.
The former president, who founded the William J. Clinton Foundation in 2001 to tackle domestic and international issues, spoke about the importance of reforming financial systems to address the global economic crisis, noting that even Germany’s banks are heavily invested in the sovereign debt of Greece.
“We can't get away from the rest of the world, so we have to share the future. We will either share misery or we will share the prosperity, but the only way to do that is to create a system that has more shared opportunities and shared responsibilities,” the former president said.
Clinton cited China, India and Brazil as examples of countries with dynamic entrepreneurship and growth that also struggle with challenges that require them to build systems while reforming them at the same time. One such example was Brazil’s desire to maintain clean energy for vital hydroelectric power without destroying the Amazon River.
Clinton also spoke about the importance of establishing training and education in the United States that could lead to job creation, as well as creating new strategies in manufacturing that focus on high-end rather than low-end industries, which are often outsourced.
In addition to training and manufacturing, Clinton addressed the significance of international trade and not becoming a protectionist country, as well as reducing the national debt. “I’d like to see the Congress adopt a huge debt-reduction measure to begin in 2013 and to take place over a decade,” he said.
Clinton also talked about the benefits of lowering corporate tax rates and reforming taxes for small businesses, which often file as subchapter S corporations and pay individual income tax rates, which can wind up putting them at a disadvantage.
He suggested simplifying the tax code, stating that roughly $380 billion a year was owed in unpaid taxes because the U.S. tax system is so complex that money often “falls through the cracks.”
Clinton expressed his affinity for small, independent businesses, which, he said, he often frequents, especially around the holidays. For Christmas, he bought jewelry for his wife, Hillary, and daughter, Chelsea, at a local jewelry store in Chappaqua, N.Y., along with books from the family-owned New York City bookshop Argosy and clothing from city retailers.
He ended his 45-minute speech by stating that the world needs to focus more on the future, especially one that includes global interdependence, rather than remaining bogged down in the details of the present.
“We’re all obligated in the present, and we’re not investing much in the future,” he said. “We can create a better tomorrow, but to do it, we’ll have to share it.”—Deidre Crawford
