The Aspen Institute

Increased saving for education, housing and investments among even the poorest Americans helps not only those households, but could bolster the national economy and net national savings as well, along with reducing the country’s reliance on overseas investments. This white paper explores barriers to savings and fresh policy approaches to help lower- to middle-income Americans save. Co-authored by Suzanne Nora Johnson, Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs and Chairman of the Global Markets Institute at Goldman Sachs (GMI), Lisa Mensah, Executive Director of The Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security (Aspen IFS), and Eugene Steuerle, Senior Fellow at The Urban Institute, it serves as the framework for a six-city roundtable series organized by Aspen IFS and GMI. The series begins on May 15 in San Francisco at a roundtable featuring Mayor Gavin Newsom and other leaders from the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Other cities in the series include Jackson on June 7 (featuring Gov. Haley Barbour) and Atlanta on June 19 (featuring Mayor Shirley Franklin).