Panel: America, Open or Closed? Economics and the Global Society

Edwin Feulner, President, The Heritage Foundation
Louis Uchitelle, Economics Writer, New York Times
Lorna Wallace, Research Fellow, Milken Institute
Doug Wilson, Chairman Townhall.com, Co-Author, Getting America Right: The True Conservative Values Our Nation Needs Today
Moderator: Joel Kurtzman, Senior Fellow, Milken Institute

The topic here is America's place in the world, particularly given the competition faced by countries such as China and India. Feulner kicks things off, noting his biggest concerns about the future of the U.S. economy: Medicare, Medicaid and Social security. The federal budget will be consumed by those things, he notes. .

Uchitelle, who won a Polk award for his reporting for the New York Times on layoffs in America, notes that there's huge psycological impact on workers who are laid off. In fact,  in his new book, "The Disposable American,"  he looks at that very trend. His comments are among the most interesting, as he talks about the ways in which workers often blame themselves when they get laid off.

Meanwhile, Wallace notes that globalization has positive and negative impacts, and has a particularly timely Lewis Carrol quote concerning America's aim to stay competitive: "It takes all the running you can do, just to stay in the same place."

Sounding a bit like a cheerleader,  Wilson notes that America's best characteristic is its social character. That, rather than technology, is our comparative advantage.

Wallace notes that there has been a decline in foreign direct investment in the U.S. In general, some of the biggest reasons for inward foreign investments includes: market access, labor, and infrastructure. Both Wilson and Wallace note that there needs to be more attention paid to the deficit, as well as individual savings in the U.S.