That said, I believe the requisites for moving forward fall into three categories. First, and probably most importantly, we must invest in people. That includes, for example, education and training efforts such as Head Start, adult skills training and technical training efforts. It includes providing decent housing, and it includes health care. The second category is public safety, and the President has made this a high priority through the Brady Bill, the assault weapons ban and the program to put police back on the streets.
Public safety is a precondition to economic activity.
The third is access to private sector capital and other measures to create economic activity in the inner cities. This has received relatively little public attention, but is critical to revitalizing America's distressed cities. The last two decades have witnessed enormous innovations in finance and in the financial markets. Ideas that were once unknown on Wall Street have become commonplace. Financial markets in the United States are today the most innovative, the broadest and deepest in the world.