The economy is not doing poorly because of a lack of money. ... [It's] because we don’t have the creativity, education and investments in people that we had previously.

Fred Leeb, the former emergency financial manager for Pontiac, Mich., a financially distressed city that was essentially taken over by the state. Leeb proposes solving cities' economic problems by giving a few billion dollars to the country's top minds to collaborate on a monumental project -- if they agree to live and work in one of America's struggling cities.