October 29, 2011

'Robin Hood' March and Teach-In for #OccupyDC

2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest
Washington, D.C. 20220

CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker took part in a teach-in on financial speculation taxes outside the Treasury Department building and the Bank of America in downtown Washington, D.C. The teach-in was part of a global march for the "Robin Hood Tax," organized by the magazine Adbusters. A video of the event is available after the jump.

October 25, 2011

An Update from the Aguán Valley in Honduras

6 p.m.
Busboys and Poets
1025 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001

The Aguán Valley region of Honduras has been the site of intense repression and violence in recent months, as large landholders attempt to consolidate control over land for palm oil plantations and U.S.-funded police and military collaborate with private guards to violently destroy entire communities. Seventeen campesinos have been murdered in just the past few months in a human rights emergency that has received little international attention. The government of Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, meanwhile, continues to receive accolades from the U.S. government for its supposed “progress” on human rights--despite the fact that the killers in the Aguán have gone unpunished and military forces are responsible for much of the repression.

October 25, 2011

In Defense of the Social Safety Net

6:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Martin Luther King Labor Center
310 West 43rd Sreet
#1199 Auditorium
NY, NY 10036

Safety net programs are in peril. In November, the congressional super committee will announce draconian cuts. In New York, the governor and the mayor blame government austerity policies on the pensions and health benefits of public employees. And at CUNY, adjunct health care is threatened. The time for push back is now. The Professional Staff Congress' Safety Net Working Group hosted a forum titled "Call to Action: Defend the Social Safety Net." CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker was the keynote speaker, followed by a panel including James Parrott of the Fiscal Policy Institute, Kim Phillips-Fein of New York University and Frances Fox-Piven of the CUNY Graduate Center. For more information, visit the event's website.

October 21, 2011

Briefing On Financial Transaction Taxes

10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
U.S. Capitol Building
S-115
East Capitol Street, NE
Washington, D.C. 20515

A small tax on financial transactions would raise tens of billions of dollars a year and curb dangerous high-speed trading. Support for a transaction tax is growing in the U.S. and around the world. The European Union recently proposed a tax of 10 cents per $100 of securities transactions, and 10 cents per $1,000 of derivatives transactions. France and Germany have already endorsed this proposal. The European Union forecasts that this tiny tax will raise some $70 billion annually.

October 13, 2011

Managing the Cinderella Workforce: Management Practices and Job Quality in Direct Care Work

3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
University of Birmingham
Room G03, University House
116 Edgbaston Park Road
West Midlands B15 2TY, United Kingdom

CEPR Senior Economist Eileen Appelbaum gave a seminar at the University of Birmingham titled "Managing the Cinderella Workforce: Management Practices, Work Organization and Job Quality in Direct Care Work."

Presentation - PDF

October 13, 2011

Government Unions in the United States

3:15 - 5:15 p.m.
Northwestern University of Law
303 E Superior St # 5-121
Chicago, IL 60611

CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker took part in a panel discussion titled "Estimating the Costs of Public Unions" as part of a larger conference at Northwestern University on "Government Unions in the United States," Oct. 13-14. Robert Novy-Marx, assistant professor of finance at the Simon Graduate School of Business, University of Rochester; Joshua Rauh, associate professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; and Andrew Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, also participated in the panel. Registration information and the agenda for the conference can be found here. For more information regarding this conference, please call (312) 503-1811 or send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

October 11, 2011

Jobs, Inequality, and the Public Sector: Improving the Economic Competitiveness and Innovative Capacity of the U.S.

1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Georgetown University Law Center
Gewirz Student Center, 12th Floor Reception Area
120 F Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20001

Early this year, President Obama released an updated "Strategy for American Innovation," and the Department of Commerce was tasked with a comprehensive study of the economic competitiveness and innovative capacity of the United States. An Innovation Advisory Board of leaders in academia, business and labor was created to work in consultation with the Department of Commerce on this important report.

To inform the consultation process for the report, as well as the broader public debate about economic competitiveness and innovation, the Communications Workers of America – which has a seat on the Innovation Advisory Board – co-sponsored this conference with Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor and the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

October 4, 2011

Brown Bag on Banks, Bubbles and Busts

12:15 - 1:15 p.m.
Washington Hilton
Georgetown West Room
919 Connecticut Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20006

CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker took part in a panel discussion titled "Brown Bag on Banks, Bubbles and Busts" as part of the 2011 Take Back the American Dream Conference, organized by The Campaign for America's Future and Van Jones' "Rebuild The Dream" organization. The agenda for the conference, which runs from Oct. 3-5, can be found here.

October 1, 2011

Union for Radical Political Economics 2011 Conference: The War on the Working Class

10:00 a.m. - 11:10 a.m.
St. Francis College Brooklyn
180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn
New York, 11242

The "Great Recession" set the stage for a multi-pronged attack by the capitalist class on the working class. Wages are falling, the safety net is being shredded, government spending on social programs is being slashed and the workers displaced are adding to the ranks of the unemployed, while unions, collective bargaining and the very notion of collective rights are under attack. But these attacks are meeting resistance.

CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker delivered the opening plenary of a two-day conference and membership meeting that addressed this war on the working class. A live webcast of the conference was shown here.

September 30, 2011

Issues in Developing Economies

10:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m
Political Economy Research Institute
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Gordon Hall
418 N Pleasant St
Amherst, MA 01002

CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot took part in a panel discussion on developing economies as part of a larger conference titled "Capitalism on Trial: A Conference in Honor of Thomas E. Weisskopf," running Sept. 30 to Oct. 1. Other panelists included Sharukh Rafi Khan from Mt. Holyoke College and Minqi Li from the University of Utah. Information on the conference can be found on the University of Massachusetts Amherst web site.