Join and support Laurence Kotlikoff for President

Our country is in deep trouble and our politicians are making things worse. It's time for bold new leadership to fix America.

Why I'm Running

Our country is at a critical juncture. Twenty-nine million Americans are out of work or underemployed. For most of those with jobs, real wage growth is a distant memory. Younger Americans are searching for the American dream and finding no-help-wanted signs. And millions of retirees are reeling from massive losses they've taken on their homes and life savings. The few doing well are doing very well, with income and wealth growing more unequal over time.

Our ongoing economic nightmare was triggered by Wall Street's systematic production and sale of trillions of dollars in toxic assets. The discovery of this fraud ignited a massive financial run, leveling one financial giant after another. Overnight, everyone expected bad times and took steps to produce that collective outcome. The result is a massive coordination failure in which those looking for work can't, as a group, communicate to companies that, were they employed, they would be willing to buy the extra output produced by those companies.

Why I Can Make a Difference

Many of the terribly pressing problems facing our country are economic ones. I'm a trained economist, who has focused for decades on the problems we face. I've specialized in public finance, which includes taxes and Social Security, but I've also done work in macroeconomics, finance, banking, personal finance, labor economics, health economics, and other subfields in economics. I've had experience advising governments, international agencies, and working for our own government.

Why a Third Party?

There is much more consensus in our country about what needs to be fixed and how to fix it than the incessant, childish fighting between Republicans and Democrats suggests. Each side views the other as the enemy and their intense antipathy toward one another prevents them from hearing each other's legitimate concerns and aspirations.

My National Security Advisor -- Ret. Admiral William Owens

Ret. Admiral Williams Owens is my top national security advisor. Admiral Owens is a man of extraordinary depth, character, judgment, and intelligence who has made an enormous contribution to our country, serving as commander of nuclear submarines during the Vietnam War and thereafter, as Commander of the Sixth Fleet during Dessert Storm, and as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Aren't You a Closet Republican? Aren't You a Closet Democrat?

Life is not black and white, but it certainly simplifies things to presume that's the case. There is safety in numbers, and with two opposing sides, remaining neutral provides protection from neither group. Today we have the reds and the blues asking, it seems, but one question. Are you with us or against us? The two sides are united by one thing -- their conviction that they are right and the other side is wrong.

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Why Kotlikoff in 2012?

Our country's problems are severe and getting worse. No candidate has all the answers. But the problems we face are primarily economic ones and may be better addressed by someone who has spent his life focused on our economic problems and their solutions. No economist has, to my knowledge, ever run for President. In recent years, we've had a nuclear engineer, an actor, two businessmen, and two lawyers. In their hands, the economy has done very poorly on a number of critical dimensions. In particular, none has come to grips with the country's long-term fiscal insolvency.

We've also been very badly served by the two parties' primary concern -- obtaining and maintaining power. This may work for them, but it's certainly not working for us. It's time to elect someone with fresh, bold ideas that will appeal to all segments of society -- someone with the courage to both articulate and implement what's really needed to fix America.