December 3, 2007

Dean Baker spoke at a conference in Amsterdam called "In Search of Progressive America." The conference was organized by the Wiardi Beckman Foundation, which is the Dutch Labor Party think-tank. At the conference, Dean discussed current globalization policy and the prospects of significant changes in a future Democratic administration. Other speakers at the conference included Wouter Bos, the vice prime minister and leader of the Labor Party and Bert Koenders, the Netherland's minister for international cooperation and development.

November 15, 2007

The current issue of the British Journal of Industrial Relations (BJIR) contains a revised version of an April 2006 CEPR briefing paper, "Changing Patterns in the Relative Economic Performance of Immigrants to Great Britain and the U.S., 1980-2000," (subscription required) that was written by CEPR economist John Schmitt and Jonathan Wadsworth. In the paper, they compare the relative labour market performance of immigrants in the USA and in Britain over the period 1980–2000, when the stocks of immigrants were rising in both countries alongside differential shifts in demand and changes to labor market institutions.

November 9, 2007

"The Housing Bubble: We Were Warned"
Dean Baker was be the keynote speaker at the 24th annual meeting of the JOBS NOW Coalition on Friday, November 9th. The meeting ran from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Lakes & Plains Regional Council of Carpenters and Joiners, 710 Olive St., St. Paul, MN. For more information, please visit the JOBS NOW website.

November 6, 2007

The D.C. Employment Justice Center organized a rally in support of The Paid Sick and Safe Days Act of 2007 (B17-0197). The bill would require employers operating in Washington, DC to provide 10 days of paid leave to their employees for the purposes of tending to physical or mental illness, preventive medical care, family care, parental leave, and absences associated with domestic violence or sexual violence. Speaking at the event on behalf of the legislation were several DC council members, a small business owner, several employees of locally operated businesses, as well as Ed Lazere of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. The speakers depicted the legislation as invaluable for the health and well being of DC working people in addition to being advantageous to the interests of business.  Domestic Intern Joshua Lanier was in attendance.

November 4, 2007

Senior economist, John Schmitt traveled to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he attended a conference on Wealth Inequality and the Eroding Middle Class. He spoke on a panel titled: Rising Wealth Inequality: Why We Should Care. The panel discussed domestic and global wealth inequality patterns and their implications. It was moderated by Lisa Keister, Professor of Sociology at Duke University and included Joel Handler (UCLA); Lingxin Hao (Professor, Johns Hopkins University); Mark Rank (Professor, Washington University in St. Louis), and Alan Reynolds (Senior Fellow, Cato Institute).

November 3, 2007

Director of International Programs, Deborah James spoke on a panel on comparative constitutional reform in Latin America at the National Lawyers Guild Convention in Washington, D.C.

October 16, 2007

Heather Boushey spoke on a panel that explored the trend of media stories that show working mothers as either leaving their careers or dreaming of doing so. The discussion was moderated by E.J. Graff, a senior researcher at Brandeis University, and also included Joan Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California; Ellen Bravo, author of Taking On the Big Boys: Why Feminism Is Good for Families and Business and the Nation; and Linda Hirshman, lawyer and professor emeritus at Brandeis University. 

October 9, 2007

Dean Baker live-blogged the Republican presidential debate for the New York Times, along with two other economists - Russell Roberts, professor of Economics at George Mason University, and William Niskanen, with the Cato Institute. 

September 17, 2007

While in London, Mark Weisbrot gave another talk titled "The Venezuelan Social Economy: The Optimistic Scenario" at Canning House, which is home to the Foreign Office, Latin American embassies and business journalists. More details on Mark's trip - including his time in Madrid, Spain - to come.

September 15, 2007

Mark Weisbrot went to London, England where he spoke at the Annual General Meeting of Compass. Mark was on a panel with Neal Lawson, the founder of Compass and John Crudass, a Labor MP, and he spoke on issues including the lessons of economic progress and political change in Latin America, and the prospect for progressives in the forthcoming US Presidential election.

 
September 5, 2007

Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman wrote a commentary in the journal "Capitalism and Society" praising Dean Baker and John Schmitt's work in a co-authored piece, "Are Protective Labor Market Institutions at the Root of Unemployment? A Critical Review of the Evidence".

August 31, 2007

John Schmitt, Dean Baker, Mark Weisbrot, David Rosnick and Ben Zipperer contributed CEPR publications to a new book, "Neoliberalism, Globalization and Inequalities: Consequences for Health and Quality of Life". Chapter titles include:

• "Is Globalization Undermining the Welfare State? The Evolution of the Welfare State in Developed Capitalist Countries"
• "The Scorecard on Development: 25 Years of Diminished Progress"
• "Economic Efficiency versus Social Equality? The U.S. Liberal Model versus The European Social Model"
• "Is the United States a Good Model for Reducing Social Exclusion in Europe?"
• "Labor Markets and Economic Inequality in the United States Since the End of the 1970s" 

August 20, 2007

Dean Baker went to Charleston, West Virginia to talk with several members of the state House and Senate about the advantages of a state-run system of voluntary retirement accounts similar to the one that Washington State is implementing. Dean also testified before the U.S. Senate pension committee on the topic. In the evening, he spoke to an overflow crowd at a local bookstore about his book, The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer.

August 3, 2007

A new book, Bad Samaritans, by CEPR Senior Research Associate and Cambridge University professor Ha-Joon Chang sparked a debate on development and macroeconomic policies on the Financial Times website. Economists including Edmund Phelps, Nobel laureate in Economics, Anne Krueger, former First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, and others wrote responses to a book review by Martin Wolf, Financial Times Chief Economics Commentator. Chang responded as well.

July 31, 2007

Mark Weisbrot spoke on freedom of the press in Latin America as part of a panel at a National Press Club event that included journalists from Mexico and Venezuela and representatives from the Due Process of Law Foundation and the Washington Office on Latin America.  

July 30, 2007

Mark Weisbrot was invited to speak by the Heinrich Böll Foundation as part of the foundation's Summer School on Gender and Macroeconomics . He discussed the role of international financial institutions (IFI's) in the long-term economic failure of developing countries.

July 24, 2007

Dean Baker debated C. Eugene Steuerle, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, on the questionable urgency of Social Security reform. The event, hosted by the Urban Institute, was very well attended and the two discussed such topics as spousal benefits, the role of health care costs, and increasing the age of retirement. Both agreed to promoting honesty and accuracy in the Social Security debate.

July 19, 2007

Over 30 DC-area residents (and some of their children) attended a screening of "The Motherhood Manifesto" co-sponsored by CEPR. Steffany Stern, National Partnership for Women and Families, introduced the film and gave an overview of proposed state and national legislation to set a minimum number of paid sick days for workers. After the film, Liz Chimienti moderated a discussion with Karen Minatelli, DC Employment Justice Center, on local campaigns to improve work/family balance, including the Paid Sick and Safe Days Act of 2007.

July 15-22, 2007

The Russell Sage Foundation has asked John Schmitt to join a group of researchers from five European countries who have been looking at low-wage work in Europe. John will be participating in a week of project meetings in New York City with the goal of producing a book-length report of the main findings, including possible lessons for the United States.

July 11, 2007

Heather Boushey spoke to U.S. Census Bureau staff on the Bridging the Gaps project and methodology. The final project will be released this fall.

July 9, 2007

Heather Boushey testified in front of the DC City Council Workforce Development and Government Operations Committee on the impact of the Paid Sick and Safe Days Act of 2007, which would require employers to provide paid sick days to all workers in the District.

June 29-30, 2007

At the annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) in Copenhagen, Denmark, John Schmitt gave a talk on low-wage employment in the United States. The workshop he participated in, sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation, compared low-wage work in the United States with the situation in Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Over 500 academics from Europe and the United States took part in the SASE conference.

June 29, 2007

June 8, 2007 

Dean Baker gave a presentation on Corporate Taxes and Double Standards at the Taming the Giant Corporation conference organized by the Center for the Study of Responsive Law. He discussed how corporations and the wealthy have devised ways to avoid paying taxes and have changed the tax rules to their benefit — resulting in more taxes for everyone else. He was joined on his panel by Katie Redford, Co-Founder and US Office Director of EarthRights International, and Lucy Komisar, Founder of the Komisarscoop.com and co-chair of Tax Justice Network-USA. 

June 4, 2007

Mark Weisbrot presented on a panel entitled Globalization: Understanding the Debate for the World Affairs Journalism Fellowships Orientation, sponsored by the International Center for Journalists. In his presentation, Mark discussed the importance of accuracy in reporting on economic issues and talked about some common misperceptions and biases in media reports on the global economy. He was joined by fellow panelist Joseph Quinlan, Fellow, Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Toby McIntosh, Managing Editor of the Daily Report for Executives, moderated the panel. 

June 1, 2007

CEPR hosted two events with Pablo Solón Romero Oroza, Plenipotentiary Representative for Integration and Trade Issues, Bolivian Ministry of Foreign Relations. CEPR sponsored a press breakfast on May 31 and a public presentation on June 1, on foreign investment in Bolivia. Much of the discussion focused on Bolivia’s precedent-setting move to withdraw from the investment dispute settlement arm of the World Bank, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). CEPR co-Director Mark Weisbrot introduced Ambassador Solón at both events and also provided background information on some of the issues.

The right of investors to sue governments directly, including for governmental regulatory actions that may diminish their profits, is a recent phenomenon, which the vast majority of such cases having been filed in just the last five years. It was a significant shift of power from governments to corporations, and one that some of the new democracies in Latin America seek to reverse, as they reclaim control over their natural resources and respond to the demands of their voters.

Among those attending the press breakfast were reporters from the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Associated Press, Washington Trade Daily, the Spanish News Agency EFE, and by phone from South America, Bloomberg News and CNN.

Pablo Solón Romero Oroza (at right) sits down with journalists to discuss the investment climate in Bolivia, May 31, 2007.  At left is CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot.

May 24, 2007

Over 400 social scientists signed a letter urging Congress to continue funding the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The President's FY08 budget would eliminate funding for the survey. The SIPP provides critical information on the effectiveness of Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps, unemployment insurance and other programs. CEPR coordinated the sign-on letter. 

May 22, 2007

Dean Baker was in the San Francisco Bay Area to talk about his two recent books, The United States Since 1980 and The Conservative Nanny State. 

May 16, 2007

CEPR co-hosted a conference on The 10th Anniversary of the Asian Financial Crisis with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. Mark Weisbrot spoke about the links between globalization and the financial crisis; John Schmitt chaired a panel on the global economy. Watch the video > 

Mark Weisbrot discusses the lessons learned from the Asian Financial Crisis, May 16, 2007.

John Schmitt moderates a panel with Nelson Barbosa from the Brazilian Ministry of Finance; Ilene Grabel from the University of Denver; and Worapot Manupipatpong of ASEAN.

May 7, 2007

Mark Weisbrot is in New York today participating in the Cornell Global Labor Institute conference, A North American Labor Assembly on Climate Crisis. He's speaking on the panel, A Question of Balance: Work Styles, Working Hours and a Low-Carbon Future.

April 30, 2007

The Center for Economic and Policy Research has had a busy year so far! Check out the latest CEPR Update for highlights of our activities since January.

April 20-21, 2007

John Schmitt traveled to London to present at the European Low-Wage Employment Research Network (LoWER) Workshop on Migration, at the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) of the London School of Economics.  Together with CEP's Jonathan Wadsworth, he will lead an "Institutions and Immigration" session, and speak at a "Women and Immigration" session.  Click here  to see the conference's program. 

April 18, 2007

Audio and video files are now available for two events on the IMF and World Bank hosted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. See: Five Years of Extraordinary Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in Argentina (Felisa Josefina Miceli and Mark Weisbrot) and Global Imbalances, Power Shifts and the Future of Multilateralism (Joseph Stiglitz, José Antonio Ocampo and Mark Weisbrot).

Nobel Laureate economist and CEPR Advisory Board member Joseph Stiglitz speaks at CEPR's panel discussion on global imbalances, April 12, 2007

Edmund Andrews, José Antonio Ocampo, Mark Weisbrot and Joseph Stiglitz respond to audience questions.

April 17, 2007

Heather Boushey testified today before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on work/family policies. She discussed the need for policies that help workers address their family demands, such as child care or paid time off, but we need Congressional action to make employers adapt. Read her testimony at: Perspectives on Work/Family Balance

April 5, 2007

Dean Baker discussed the current state of international lending and international financial institutions (IFI’s) as part of an opening panel at the Inaugural North American IFIWatchers meeting in Washington, DC. He was joined on the panel by Smitu Kothari, Intercultural Resources and Princeton University, and Bruce Rich of Environmental Defense. Manish Bapna, Executive Director of the Bank Information Center, moderated the discussion, which was attended by over 40 representatives of organizations working on IFI issues. 

March 28, 2007

Heather Boushey and Liz Chimienti met with a dozen researchers in Seattle to discuss the methodology and initial findings for the Bridging the Gaps project. The meeting was coordinated by our project partner, Seattle Jobs Initiative. The Washington state report will be released this summer.

March 21-22, 2007

The Bridging the Gaps project is picking up steam in New York. Working with the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI), Heather Boushey and Liz Chimienti presented the project's research goals and received helpful feedback from over 30 researchers and advocates in Albany and New York City. In addition, FPI's Deputy Director James Parrott arranged for Heather and Liz to brief the staff of New York City's Center for Economic Opportunity on the project — and the possibility of generating specific data for New York City. Given the large population of city, Bridging the Gaps researchers believe it may be feasible to get that level of detail (with relatively large standard errors). Over the next few weeks, the Bridging the Gaps team will incorporate recent feedback and finalize the New York state research. The Fiscal Policy Institute will work with its allies to determine when and how the New York state report will be released.

March 13, 2007

In response to President Bush's trip to Latin America, CEPR's international team -- Dan Beeton, Jeremy Bigwood, Belen Cadena, Luis Sandoval and Mark Weisbrot -- has been busy providing analysis and commentary on the Latin American economy. See press interviews and other resources on our Latin America webpage. 

March 11, 2007

March 10, 2007

Mark Weisbrot spoke at the fifth annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Crystal City, VA, on the economic and political changes taking place in Latin America. Over 1,000 international faith leaders and activists were part of the four-day event.

February 23, 2007

Mark Weisbrot spoke at a briefing on the World Trade Organization (WTO) for Congressional staff. He discussed the shrinking gains from trade that are to be expected from a successful Doha Round of WTO negotiations, and weighed them against the potential losses to developing countries. Mark pointed out that - according to the World Bank's research - developing countries have very little to gain from the further trade liberalization that would be required under the Doha Round, while they would meanwhile have to make costly changes, including adopting new rules and tariff reductions that would limit their development options.

February 21, 2007

Dean Baker discussed his book, The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer, at the Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco.

February 15, 2007

As part of CEPR's Bridging the Gaps initiative, the Chicago-based organization Heartland Alliance released its 2007 Report on Illinois Poverty. The report describes income gains for poor and middle-income Illinois families, including eligibility gap findings for food stamps, housing support and TANF. Bridging the Gaps is a partnership of state and national groups that measures how much it costs for families to make ends meet -- and examines how they are coping. The partner states are Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Washington and the District of Columbia.

February 15, 2007

CEPR is expanding! We are excited to announce a new partnership with Inclusion. Through policy papers, research, op-eds and a blog, Inclusion advances a progressive long-term vision for producing a fairer, more sustainable world -- including improved wages, job quality, benefits, opportunities and more. Inclusion co-founders Shawn Fremstad, Rachel Gragg and Margy Waller have, between them, worked for the White House Domestic Policy Council in the Clinton Administration, Senator Paul Wellstone, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Brookings Institution and the Center for Community Change.

February 7, 2007

CEPR is pleased to welcome a new Senior Research Associate, economist Roberto Frenkel. He is Principal Research Associate at the State and Society Research Center (Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad—CEDES) and Professor at the University of Buenos Aires (Universidad de Buenos Aires) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Today, CEPR released his article, Argentina: The Central Bank in the Foreign Exchange Market. The original article (in Spanish) was published in La Nación on December 31, 2006. For more information on Roberto Frenkel, see his biography or his full CV (in Spanish).

February 2, 2007

Heather Boushey moderated a panel on work/family class issues at a Barnard College conference, The Work/Family Dilemma: A Better Balance. The event featured a variety of speakers discussing low-income working women, the difficulties they face in supporting their families, and future policy proposals.

January 31, 2007

Dean Baker submitted testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee hearing, The Causes of Economic Hardship for the Middle Class. Dean argues that the upward redistribution of wealth over the last 25 years was primarily the result of policy changes and not simply the natural workings of the market. He discusses four policy areas that should be improved: trade and immigration, Federal Reserve Board, labor-management, and corporate governance.

January 30, 2007

After a year of drafting letters and organizing researchers to oppose the elimination of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), we are pleased that Congress has fully funded the SIPP for another year. More on the SIPP can be found at http://www.ceprdata.org/savesipp/index.php.

January 29, 2007

Mark Weisbrot participated in a Financial Times online chat on Venezuela with FT's Latin America editor Richard Lapper and economist Francisco Rodríguez (includes transcript).

January 24, 2007

CEPR Board Member Peter Barnes, co-founder of Working Assets, came to Washington, DC this week to discuss his new book, Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons. At the bookstore cafe Busboys and Poets, he talked about his vision for fixing capitalism to protect the commons and share resources for environmental and social goods.

CEPR Director of Finance and Administration Nicole Woo presents Peter Barnes with a CEPR t-shirt.

January 24, 2007

At a press breakfast in Washington, DC, Mark Weisbrot discussed the state of U.S.-Latin American relations with Dr. Riordan Roett, Director of Western Hemisphere Studies for the Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). They examined how a new wave of Latin American leaders is changing the face of the region and its relations with the U.S., multilateral institutions, international financial markets, and foreign investors, while at the same time, U.S. influence in the region has waned significantly under the Bush administration. Audio files available.

January 22-24, 2007

CEPR's Heather Boushey and Liz Chimienti joined John Quinterno from the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center to discuss the Bridging the Gaps project with researchers and advocates in Raleigh, Charlotte and Asheville, NC. Heather presented initial findings on the number of people eligible and receiving six public work supports in North Carolina. She also received feedback on the project from several of the governor’s staff. The trip was covered in the Asheville Citizen-Times.

January 9, 2007

Dean Baker and Heather Boushey traveled to Chicago last week to participate in the Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) conference. Heather gave two presentations. In the first, she joined Randy Albelda from the University of Massachusetts-Boston to present the initial findings of the Bridging the Gaps project: Bridging the Gaps: Can Single Mothers Package Earnings and Government Benefits to Make Ends Meet? Heather's second talk, The Wage-Curve: Cognitive Ability, Schooling, Race, Unemployment Probabilities and the Black-White Wage Gap, was presented with William M. Rodgers, III from Rutgers University and William E. Spriggs from Howard University.

January 5, 2007

For the next six weeks, John Schmitt will be working for CEPR from Barcelona, where he will be teaching at the Pompeu Fabra University. John has been a visiting professor there since 1999. This year he'll be giving two courses, one on political economy and another on labor markets.