One year ago, the American financial system and the U.S. economy were on the verge of collapse.  Aggressive efforts by the Democratic Congress, President Obama, responsible actors in the private sector, and average Americans have worked to bring the country back from the brink of disaster and onto the road to recovery.  While another Great Depression has been averted and progress is being made to restore economic activity, too many families are still struggling as job creation has been slow to rebound. 

Gene Sperling, Counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, formerly served as Director of the National Economic Council under President Clinton, where he played a lead role in developing Clinton Administration policies that produced more than 22.5 million jobs.  Before joining the Obama Administration, Mr. Sperling founded the Center for Universal Education at the Council on Foreign Relations and was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Lawrence Lindsey is President and CEO of The Lindsey Group, an economic advisory firm in Washington, DC.  From 2000 to 2002, Mr. Lindsey served as chief economic advisor to the Bush presidential campaign, where he was the principal architect of the Bush tax cuts, and as Director of the National Economic Council under President George W. Bush.  Previously, Mr. Lindsey served as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1991 to 1997, Special Assistant to President George H.W. Bush for Policy Development, and senior economist for tax policy on President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Martin Baily is the Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in Economic Policy Development at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in economic policy, productivity and competitiveness.  From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Baily served as the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton.  Before joining Brookings, he was a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.  From 1989 to 1996, he served as a professor of economics at the University of Maryland.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin is President of DHE Consulting, LLC, a management consulting firm.  During the 2008 presidential campaign, Mr. Holtz-Eakin served as Director of Domestic and Economic Policy for Senator John McCain.  From 2003 to 2005, he served as Director of the Congressional Budget Office.  Previously, Mr. Holtz-Eakin was the Chief Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush.  He has also served as Director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Chaired the Department of Economics at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University.