2020 Aspen Ideas Festival: Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson

The Aspen Ideas Festival
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Courtesy of Aspen Ideas Festival

Speakers from last week's "socially distanced" 2020 Summer Aspen Ideas Festival.

Part 1: Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is a former judge and City Council member and is being considered for vice president. She speaks about racial, social and economic justice in America.

Lance Bottoms joins CNN political commentator Angela Rye for a candid conversation about her most challenging months as mayor of Atlanta — an epicenter for the multiple crises we’re seeing across the country in 2020. Bottoms opens up about authenticity and exhaustion, identity and the American experience, and the leadership lessons she’s learned from COVID-19.

On the short-list of potential running mates for presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, Mayor Bottoms reflects on what she might bring to the ticket, and why Biden once told her that serving in local government can actually be a much tougher job.

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Part 2: Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Jr. assesses the condition of the economy in — and beyond — the pandemic.

Double-digit unemployment and some permanent job losses are among the long-term consequences of COVID-19. But there is one positive side of the crisis, says Paulson: The pandemic has laid bare the structural deficits that define us at the moment — deficits that we can attack and resolve.

In this wide-ranging conversation with Gillian Tett, editor of the Financial Times, Paulson unpacks the merits of carbon dividends, regulatory reform, a domestic Marshall Plan, and the importance of a new commitment to international economic cooperation.

Watch the complete session at the Aspen Ideas Festival: