This week we speak with the Hon. David M. Walker, Senior Strategic Advisor, PwC, Founder, Comeback America Initiative, and former Comptroller General of the United States. Dave Walker is the author of Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility (2010), and will be a keynote speaker at the 22nd annual Atlantic Conferences Symposium on Mezzanine & Middle Market Finance, May 5 -6, NYC: The Summit for Middle Market Debt Finance™.
The Lead Left: David, you did a great video back in 2012 that explains our nation’s debt problem very cogently. What’s changed since then?
Dave Walker: Randy, the only things that have really changed are the numbers. That’s because policymakers haven’t treated the disease. Our fiscal problems are structural in nature and they are driven by several systemic issues: demographic trends, rising healthcare costs, our outdated tax code, and welfare programs that are very costly and yet not very effective.
TLL: You’ll be addressing these issues in your May 6th keynote at the Atlantic Conferences Middle Market Symposium. What points are you hoping to get across to all of us bankers?
DW: It’s basically the same major message. Let me break it down this way. We suffer from three maladies: