In January 2009, PERI Co-Director Gerald Epstein co-authored “A Progressive Program for Economic Recovery & Financial Reconstruction,” which was signed by over fifty economists. Since that time, the Obama administration has proposed and implemented a large number of economic initiatives. In this essay for Revue de la regulation, Epstein asks “How should we assess the nature of these initiatives? Are they well conceived to address the serious macroeconomic and financial problems facing the U.S. and the global community? How do they compare with the proposals put forward in the ‘Progressive Economists Statement?’” His findings conclude with apprehension: “unless the Obama administration is able to move forward quickly and change their approach to finance by developing a financial strategy that is seen as fair, equitable and can also work to get finance flowing to the real economy, then more radical forces are likely to gain increased power. And, one should remember that in the U.S., we are coming out of a long period in which it is the radical forces of the right, rather than of the left, that have tended to prevail.”