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Lede: The economy appears on track to begin growing again, but to sustain it one fiscal expert says financial institutions must change how they operate. Doug Cunningham reports.

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By Doug Cunningham

With the economy actually growing again rather than contracting the next challenge to make the economy work for all of us is to sustain that growth. Dr. James Parrot of New York City’s Fiscal Policy Institute says that means banks have to adopt lending practices that support jobs in the real economy.

[Parrot]: “We need to re-orient the finance sector so that it starts lending again, expanding credit and financing production of goods and services in the real sector of the economy rather than the finance sector being in the driver’s seat.”

Parrot says several other things are necessary for sustained financial growth. One of them is dealing with the lingering home foreclosure crisis. Parrot says there’s still an explosion of mortgages that need to be refinanced to keep people in their homes.

[Parrot 2]: “We need to have real progress in terms of getting banks to refinance mortgages that are on the verge of foreclosures. There’s still an explosion of foreclosures around the country.”