Neil Young, 12/06/12

Activist and rock legend

For survival of the planet and our way of life as human beings, we need to drastically reduce our carbon output. The approach being taken does not do that.

Steve Lombardo, 12/06/12

Edelman

The best brands in the world find a way of both making consumers want to be part of their community and differentiating the product from their competitors. The 2012 Republican Party did neither.

Elena Panaritis, 12/06/12

Founder, Panel Group; Author, 'Prosperity Unbound'

Austerity has made it difficult for Greece to meet its fiscal targets, as well as its structural reforms. This is why anything short of debt forgiveness and more bailout funds is only a way for Europe to buy a little bit of time but at a huge price.

Kathy Kemper, 12/06/12

Founder and CEO, Institute for Education

We should be taking risks, the Nobels said, not avoiding them. We should be encouraging ideas from outside the established community, from diverse sources; we should accept failure as a necessary stepping stone to revolutionary progress.

William K. Black, 12/06/12

Assoc. Professor, Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City; Sr. regulator during S&L debacle

Italians have to choose. They can continue to waste the talents of millions of Italians, particularly their young, through Great Depression levels of unemployment. Alternatively, Italy could decide to end its recession, employ its people and create a group of world class universities.

Harlan Green, 12/06/12

Editor and Publisher, PopularEconomics.com

The debt ceiling debate is a manufactured crisis. The drive by conservatives to cripple government spending, deregulate whole industries, and emphasize military power over social spending has only made us weaker overseas and at home.

Christine Lagarde, 12/06/12

Managing Director, IMF

Next week, I will travel to Latin America -- my second visit to the region since November 2011. I return with increased optimism, as much of Latin America continues its impressive transformation that started a decade ago.

Jag Bhalla, 12/06/12

Entrepreneur & writer, 'Errors We Live By' series

What would happen if everybody did the same -- if everybody found a way to create a legal fig leaf loophole that allowed them to evade contributing to the costs of running the country, or rationalized why they should get payments from the public purse?

Stacie Nevadomski Berdan and Liesl Riddle, 12/06/12

In the next 50 years, most economic growth worldwide will take place outside the G7. But that's only half the story. Who are the people who will be the driving force for this growth? Many will be women.

Brian Hamilton, 12/06/12

CEO, Sageworks, Inc.

People talk about government spending as a percentage of GDP or use spurious metrics that confuse the main theme of the data. Look at it as a businessperson would: If a company is taking in $100 and spending $150, it doesn't matter what expenses are relative to anything else.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, 12/06/12

Editor and Publisher of The Nation

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the remarkable farmworker organization in Florida that I have written about many times over the years as they continue to win victory after victory in their Campaign for Fair Food, has done it again.

Adam Levin, 12/06/12

Founder, Credit.com and former director NJ Division of Consumer Affairs

While the fiscal cliff gets all the attention, the mortgage cliff is just as steep, and just as perilous. If American consumers take another big fall, our leaders are almost certainly not far behind.

Gilbert B. Kaplan, 12/06/12

Former Deputy Assistant and Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce

The United States' trade policy is left over from the 20th century. We are utilizing the same policy and fighting the same battles we did in 1985. But it's not 1985 anymore and the world has changed dramatically. We need a trade policy for the 21st century.

Jane White, 12/06/12

Author, 'America, Welcome to the Poorhouse'

Why don't we have tougher laws that prohibit banks and credit card companies from fabricating negative credit scores so that they can charge higher interest rates and laugh all the way to the bank?

Michael S. Lofgren, 12/06/12

Former Republican Congressional Staffer

I am sure we have all had it up to here with breathless reporting about the fiscal cliff. But within a month or two after the December 31, 2012 deadline for resolving the cliff, there looms another, more serious economic issue: extending the debt limit.

Richard P. Michalski, 12/06/12

General Vice President, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers

We must invest in the American workforce and continue to fund research to stay ahead of our competitors -- and our enemies. The only way America will continue to lead in the aerospace industry is if we continue to stay ahead of our global competitors.

Eric Alterman, 12/06/12

Distinguished Professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York

The New York Times published an extraordinary set of articles on tax policy as it actually exists in the United States -- beneath all of the politicians' rhetorical posturing and the all-too-frequent unquestioning and superficial press coverage.