America’s Lost Decade

When America entered the new millennium, the Clinton Administration reported a budget surplus of around $559 billion and the world was in a state of relative peace. With dot-coms booming, real estate values rising and seemingly no end to the nation’s economic prosperity in sight, the American dream seemed to be a reality for more people.  But in 2011 the picture is less rosy. What happened over the past ten years, and does it add up to a lost generation; one without hope of achieving the American Dream? Lesley Curwen,  BBC correspondent, has been working on a new project which looks at what three wars, record unemployment and political gridlock has done to America in the ten years after 9/11.   Todd Buchholz,  former White House economist during the George H.W. Bush administration and author of “Rush: Why You Need and Love the Rat Race,” talks about the challenges the U.S. will face in the next then years to avoid having a “lost decade.”