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.

September 24, 2011

Macro-Economic Policy in the Eurozone: Are There Alternatives to Slow Growth and High Unemployment?

Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Luc Everaert, Assistant Director for the European Department, IMF

This debate, which took place Sept. 24, 2011, provides a critical overview of the eurozone crisis. It is perhaps most remarkable in that Weisbrot offers a harsh critique of the policies that have been implemented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its partner European authorities (the European Commission and the European Central Bank) — an argument he also made recently in a column in The Guardian — and Everaert of the IMF does not offer much disagreement. “I also agree with Mark’s diagnosis of the problem. I think the problem is a policy failure,” Everaert admits at the beginning of his presentation (minute 1:09).

The two economists differ on the solution to the eurozone’s current problems. While Weisbrot proposes that fiscal and monetary policies can be used to stimulate struggling eurozone economies, such as in Greece, Everaert warns of the dangers of inflation. (Minute 10:13).

The debate recording is time-stamped with the main points made by both participants, so that listeners and viewers can move easily to their subjects of interest. The first 30 minutes of the debate are in audio only, with the rest in video.

September 22, 2011

CANCELLED - The Bolivian Economic Model: Responses to the 2011 Economic Crisis

10 a.m.
Public Citizen
1600 20th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20009

The economic model that the government of President Evo Morales has applied since 2006 has allowed Bolivia to maintain economic growth while also focusing on the redistribution of income, social inclusion and respect towards nature, even within the context of the increase in petroleum and food prices following the financial crisis of 2008. In 2011, high volatility in the prices of raw materials, changes in international demand and exchange rate pressures of neighboring countries, are posing challenges for the economy.

In a discussion with Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Luis Arce, minister of economy and finances, and Bolivia's Governor to the IMF, will talk about the problems faced by Bolivia due to the crisis of 2011. Deborah James, director of international programs at CEPR, will moderate. 

September 18, 2011

Firedoglake Book Salon: Dean Baker's The End of Loser Liberalism

5 - 7 p.m EDT
firedoglake

CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker participated in an online discussion on firedoglake for his new book, "The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive."

September 15, 2011

Money Makes The World Go Around

12:15 - 1:30 p.m.
County Administration Building
Room 3220
400 4th Street N
La Crosse, WI 54601

CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker took part in brown bag forum on the economy, financial speculation taxes and the misinformation behind the deficit. The event, which was free, was sponsored by the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Center for Economic Development; Wisconsin Voices; Institute for Wisconsin’s Future; American Federation of Teachers - 212; Citizen Action of WI; Partnership for Working Families; We Are Milwaukee- We Are WI; WISDOM; SEIU; and Wisconsin AFL-CIO.

September 15, 2011

Money Makes The World Go Around

6 - 8:30 p.m.
The Plaza
1202 W. Clairemont Ave.
Eau Claire, WI

CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker took part in a talk on the economy, financial speculation taxes and the misinformation behind the deficit. The event, which is free, is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Center for Economic Development; Wisconsin Voices; Institute for Wisconsin’s Future; American Federation of Teachers - 212; Citizen Action of WI; Partnership for Working Families; We Are Milwaukee- We Are WI; WISDOM; SEIU; and Wisconsin AFL-CIO.

September 15, 2011

The Andes Initiative Presents: Panel on "The Revolution in Venezuela"

6 - 7:30 p.m.
David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
S-250
1730 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Is Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution under Hugo Chávez truly revolutionary? Most books and articles tend to view the Chávez government in an either-or fashion. Some see the president as the shining knight of twenty-first-century socialism, while others see him as an avenging Stalinist strongman. Despite passion on both sides, the Chávez government does not fall easily into a seamless fable of emancipatory or authoritarian history, as essays in the recent book The Revolution in Venezuela: Social and Political Change Under Chávez (Series on Latin American Studies) make clear.

CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot took part in a panel discussion on the collection of essays. Other participants included Cathy Rakowski, associate professor of women's studies and rural sociology at Ohio State University, and Thomas Ponniah, professor at the school of liberal arts and sciences at George Brown College. More information on the event can be found here.