Pivoting off Jeffrey Sachs, James Hamilton urges policymakers to consider long-run structural challenges as we confront the short term. While Sachs focuses on American manufacturing, Hamilton emphasizes our natural resources:
For over a century, the U.S. produced more oil than any other country, and even today we are still the third biggest oil producer in the world. The U.S. today is the world's leading producer of items such as lumber, corn and poultry, number 2 in coal, oranges, soybeans, and gypsum, and third in cotton and lead. Our abundant natural resources have always been an important advantage for America, and are still an important advantage today. And it is within our power to do more with our natural resources. A decade ago, the U.S. was the second biggest producer of rare earth elements, which play a critical role in many of today's high-tech devices and systems.
The Dish 