September 2020 The Great Correction Dante Disparte & Tomicah Tillemann Last edited on September 02, 2020 at 6:21 p.m. EDT About the Author(s) Council, the umbrella organization for the blockchain industry. He previously served at the State Dante Disparte is the founder and chairman of Risk Department as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Cooperative, a strategic risk advisory and insurance State, leading a team of experts that brought together brokerage based in Washington, D.C., and licensed in technology, talent, resources, and partners to build all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Dante also serves 20 major initiatives in 55 countries. Tillemann led the as an appointee on the Federal Emergency State Department's Global Philanthropy Working Management Agency (FEMA) National Advisory Group and its federal advisory committee on Council and has served on various subcommittees engagement with non-state actors. Tillemann joined reviewing insurance and mitigation, capacity building the State Department in 2009 as Secretary Clinton's and long-term strategy. He is the founder and speechwriter and collaborated with her on over 200 chairman of the Business Council for American speeches. Security and an ex-officio board member with the American Security Project, a non-partisan think tank Previously, he spent four years on the staff of the focused on comprehensive security issues for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee working with twenty-first century. Joe Biden, John Kerry and Barack Obama. His other professional experience includes work with the White Dante is a frequent speaker and commentator on House, five U.S. Senate and Congressional business and political issues shaping the world. His campaigns, Reuters New Media, and the World Bank. views on risk, economic competitiveness and global He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s security are regularly featured in leading media and Council for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the publications, such as Harvard Business Review, BBC, United Nations World Food Program Innovation Forbes, and International Policy Digest, among Advisory Council, and the Lantos Foundation Board of others. Dante is a graduate of Harvard Business Trustees. Tillemann is a co-holder of four patents. He School and holds an MSc. in Risk Management from received his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale the NYU Stern School of Business and a B.A. in University and holds a Ph.D. with distinction from the International and Intercultural Studies from Goucher School for Advanced International Studies at Johns College, where he is the recipient of the school’s Hopkins University. He has lectured at Yale and highest public service award. He is the co-author of Princeton, testified repeatedly before Congress, and Global Risk Agility and Decision Making (Macmillan, delivered over 100 keynote addresses. 2016) and was recognized as one of the 40 leaders under 40 by the Washington Business Journal and in the inaugural Powermeter 100 list.um. About New America We are dedicated to renewing the promise of America Dr. Tomicah Tillemann is the Executive Director of by continuing the quest to realize our nation’s highest the Digital Impact and Governance Initiative (DIGI) at ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by New America. With the support of the Rockefeller rapid technological and social change, and seizing the Foundation, DIGI is developing the next generation of opportunities those changes create. technology platforms to transform the way governments deliver value for citizens. He also oversees the work of the Blockchain Trust About Digital Impact and Governance Accelerator (BTA) and the Responsible Asset Initiative Allocator Initiative (RAAI). The BTA works with organizations to deploy decentralized technology The Digital Governance and Impact Initiative (DIGI) solutions that address governance and social impact develops technology platforms that transform the way challenges worldwide. The RAAI index ranks institutions deliver value for citizens. We work with sovereign wealth and pension funds with combined partners in government and the private sector to assets of $20 trillion based on their strategies for create modular, interoperable technology solutions managing social, governance, and environmental built on open source code that address key challenges risks. He also chairs the Global Blockchain Business facing the public sector. newamerica.org/digital-impact-governance-initiative/reports/great-correction/ 2 Contents Checklist 4 Introduction 6 Household Economy 9 Community Resilience 12 A Pandemic of Racism 15 Election Integrity 18 Healthcare Surge Capacity 22 Supply Chain Management 24 Universal Access to Digital Services 27 Banking and Payment Systems 31 Economic Resilience 34 Future of Work 37 Epidemiological Readiness 40 Porous Lines of Defense 42 Institutions 44 Policy Considerations 48 newamerica.org/digital-impact-governance-initiative/reports/great-correction/ 3 Checklist 1. Solve twenty-first century challenges with twenty-first century technology: Virtually every government mounting an effective response to the pandemic—including South Korea, Estonia, Taiwan, and New Zealand—powers their institutions with world-class digital infrastructure. We need to learn from these examples. Citizens should have access to secure data wallets that provide individuals with ownership and control of their information and records. The right tech can streamline access to services, facilitate contact tracing, and allow for more rapid recovery from future disasters. 2. Ensure universal access to basic digital services: It is almost impossible to participate fully in society without access to digital platforms. The pandemic has further exacerbated the inequalities that flow from disparities in connectivity. An expanded twenty-first century social safety net should include universal access to: 1) high-speed, low- cost internet; 2) a basic laptop or tablet to get online; and 3) foundational digital government and financial services. 3. Build open source to expedite digital crisis response: Governments should leverage the power of open source software to share innovations with other communities around the world. Open source allows governments to pool resources and quickly replicate digital services from other jurisdictions rather than building from scratch. Adopting world- class systems that have already been tested and implemented in other settings should form the foundation of a global digital response to future crises. 4. Foster options to reinforce resilience: Providing citizens with multiple paths to access vital services creates safeguards when things go wrong. From low-cost telemedicine as a fallback when in-person care is unavailable to digital and mail-in balloting to supplement in-person voting, the principle of optionality should apply to all essential services. 5. Avoid trading efficiency for fragility: Prior to the pandemic, organizations in almost all sectors prioritized efficiency at any cost. The pandemic exposed the weaknesses of systems optimized for airtight “just- in-time” delivery as supply chain failures caused cascading shortages for everything from test kits to meat. Policymakers must build redundancy to reduce risk. Institutions and firms should adopt digital procurement systems that rely on blockchain traceability to manage supply chain risk and build stockpiles and surge capacity. newamerica.org/digital-impact-governance-initiative/reports/great-correction/ 4 6. To build resilience, remember that staffing is policy: The United States needs a cabinet-level chief risk officer to define a national strategy around risk-sharing and preparedness. We should also create a preparedness accelerator that can develop and scale solutions to future crises, an early alert system to monitor potential threats, and a resilience reserve corps to inject qualified responders into communities in need. 7. Help families get back on their feet: Many households will experience financial setbacks that last far beyond lockdowns and quarantines. Public institutions must redesign their work to help individuals weather these hardships. Measures that could help include debt forgiveness for students emerging from college and those struggling to find employment, healthcare cost waivers to ensure access to testing and treatment during the pandemic, and credit scoring resets to help guarantee that those who fall on hard times during this crisis are not saddled with an added burden when rebuilding their lives in years to come. newamerica.org/digital-impact-governance-initiative/reports/great-correction/ 5 Introduction The speed with which the COVID-19 pandemic brought the global economy and so-called fortress nations to their knees, buckled healthcare systems, and crushed carefully conceived response plans should prompt deep societal reflection. When the pandemic finally clears and nations tally the human and economic toll of this crisis, one certainty will be a long list of lost lives and livelihoods. The central task now is to ensure that the sacrifices of once hidden heroes in the medical, scientific and educational communities and the trillions in national treasure spent in the heat of battle on recovery efforts will not be squandered. To realize that goal, any post-pandemic response and recovery plan must produce a better world. Great crises often lay the groundwork for great reforms. Just as the incalculable toll of World War II gave birth to new international institutions with the twin charges of keeping the peace and ensuring that a rules-based