April 9, 2012

Recovering from the Bubble Economy: Jobs, Wages and Unemployment

7 p.m.
University of Oregon
Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics
Ford Alumni Center
Giustina Ballroom
1515 Agate Street
Eugene, OR 97403

CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker took part in the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics' public affairs speaker series titled "In the Shadows of the Great Recession: Recovery and Inequality." Dean was joined by University of Oregon Economist Mark Thoma. More information can be found on the event's website.

April 4, 2012

99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality Is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It

6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Busboys & Poets
2021 14th Street NW
Washington, D.C., 20009

CEPR Board Member and IPS Fellow Chuck Collins discussed and signed his new book about "How Wealth Inequality Is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It." CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker moderated the event. Co-sponsors included IPS’ Inequality and the Common Good and New Economy Working Group projects, Teaching for Change bookstore, Busboys & Poets, Faith & Money Network, Empower DC, Democracy Collaborative, United for A Fair Economy, and Center for Economic and Policy Research. For more info, visit the event's website.

April 2, 2012

Occupy the Future

1 p.m.
Carnegie Institute of Washington
1530 P Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20005

The National Occupation of Washington, D.C., which begins on March 30 and ends on April 30, will include protests, music and art, but its anchor is education of the movement. The major educational activities begin on April 2 with the "Control the Corporation" conference at the Carnegie Institute of Washington. The conference, organized by the Center for the Study of Responsive Law, included how people can work toward controlling corporations' impact on elections, slow privatization, create better-paying jobs and mobilize for the future. CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker took part in a panel discussion called "Occupy the Future" at 1 p.m. The full schedule is available on the conference website. Please register in advance at http://csrl.org to help planning for food and space.

March 30, 2012

The Future of Entitlement Programs

8 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
2660 Woodley Road, NW
Washington, DC 20008

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have been staples of American life for many decades but now their futures are threatened. As part of the 2012 Annual Conference of the American Society on Aging, taking place March 28 through April 1, this panel addressed the challenges these programs face, and explored the issue of whether there will be enough wealth in the American economy to support these programs. Sessions included The Future of Social Security, The Future of Medicare and Medicaid and The Politics of the Future of Entitlements. Registration and session info can be found on the event's website.

March 29, 2012

Investment in Private Markets: Rewards, Risks and Implications for Economic Growth and Jobs - Good Jobs? - Creation

1:30 p.m. - 3:10 p.m.
Harvard Law School
2036 Millstein East Campus
Wasserstein Building
1563 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02138

CEPR Senior Economist Eileen Appelbaum chaired a presentation titled "Investment in Private Markets: Rewards, Risks and Implications for Economic Growth and Jobs - Good Jobs? - Creation" as part of Harvard Law School's 10th Annual Pensions and Capital Stewardship conference, March 28-29. Presenters included Tom Rotherham, director of Hermes Equity Ownership Services, Ltd.; Stephen Sleigh, fund director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers National Pension Fund; and Michael Swack, professor at the University of New Hampshire and research faculty at the Carsey Institute. For more information, visit the event site.

March 27, 2012

Haiti Briefing: Haitian American Students Brief on IDP Camps

1 - 3 p.m.
Rayburn House Office Building
Room 2456
45 Independence Ave SW
Washington, D.C.

Haiti is beginning a new rainy season, yet again cholera is threatening the almost 500,000 people still in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps. It will also bring in a third and fourth wave of cholera that will infect those most vulnerable to the disease. On top of the physical climate, the political climate has also heated up. With the abrupt resignation of the prime minister, the parliamentary elections are at a standstill and reports of violence in IDP camps, those least able to protect themselves from cholera are going to find themselves in an even greater precarious situation. Researchers held a briefing to highlight realities and dispel misconceptions about Haiti’s IDPs.

March 27, 2012

The Latin American Spring

12:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Brandeis University
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Glynn Amphitheater
415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02454

CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot took part in a discussion on the prospects for Latin American development. The event was sponsored by The Latin American Working Group. Contact Michael Galhouse ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for more information. A video of the event is available below or after the jump.

March 26, 2012

The D-Word: Can Default Save Greece? Or Is Austerity the Answer?

4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Harvard Kennedy School
Littauer-140
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA

As the Eurozone crisis smolders, one out of every five people in Greece is unemployed. Greece's Central Bank now expects the country to slip deeper into recession, despite European authorities' massive lending and budget-cutting prescriptions. Should Greece continue to follow the path of austerity, or should it opt for the path of Argentina: abandon the euro and default? To shed some light, Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, joined Harvard Kennedy School Professors Richard Parker and Jeffrey Frankel in assessing Greece's escape routes.

March 21, 2012

Need or Greed: Who's Responsible for the Global Economic Collapse?

7 p.m.
Chicago Temple
77 West Washington
Chicago, IL, 60602

As we enter the fifth year of the Great Recession, the new watch word for those of us on Main Street is austerity. We are told we must sacrifice to restore the economy to health. Meanwhile, the Dow hovers around the 13,000 mark and the good times are back on Wall Street. Is this really the route back to prosperity? Or just a rerun of the same old same old?

Chicago Area Peace Action sponsored a town hall discussion with economist and CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker on "Need or Greed: Who's Responsible for the Global Economic Collapse?" For more information, visit the event website or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

March 18, 2012

The Eurozone Crisis and Alternatives to Austerity: Debating & Debunking the Prevailing Myths

10:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m.
Pace University
Room W615
551 5th Ave
New York, N.Y. 10176

The Eurozone crisis is being used to justify the erosion of workers' rights and the implementation of policies that would increase unemployment and have devastating ripple effects on the global economy for years to come. The conventional wisdom of key international institutions holds that European governments’ excessive spending on social safety nets created unsustainable levels of debt that ultimately brought about the crisis. But the crisis was precipitated, in large part, by the same institutional failures that caused the financial crisis in the United States, including lax regulations on reckless bankers and a housing bubble. The current failure of the European Central Bank to guarantee countries’ debts, combined with austerity policies demanded by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, have created a downward spiral that merely exacerbates the crisis. This panel, part of the larger Left Forum conference, critically examined the assumptions made by these institutions and propose more effective policies and actions that could be taken to halt the crisis and prevent its spread to the rest of the world.