OBAMAs CHALLENGE

Release date : 2008-11-28

As President-elect Barack Obama unveils his top economic team, a leading progressive thinker challenges America's next leader with a controversial plan for economic recovery.

Robert Kuttner, author of the new book "Obama's Challenge," talks to NOW on PBS about the enormous obstacles to -- and potential solutions for -- getting America's economy back on track.

Kuttner offers his advice on how Obama should stimulate a recovery: spending $600-700 billion per year over several years to fundamentally change the economy. "We need the government big time to prevent this from becoming the Great Depression II," Kuttner tells NOW's David Brancaccio.

Will Obama usher in the most sweeping reforms since the New Deal to get the economy working again?