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.

March 18, 2012

Latin America Unites and the Challenge to U.S. Hegemony

12:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
Pace University
Room E316
551 5th Ave
New York, N.Y. 10176

With the recent creation of yet another regional western hemispheric organization, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), alongside with the already existing Unasur and ALBA projects, Latin American integration moves forward and challenges US hegemony and imperialism. This panel, part of the larger Left Forum conference, discussed how real this challenge is to U.S. hegemony by examining the history of these challenges, its political-economic context, its relationship to social movements in the region, and the official goals of this process.

March 17, 2012

Accountability in Post Earthquake Haiti: Reconstruction Failures and the UN's Cholera Problem

5:00 p.m. - 6:40 p.m.
Pace University
Room E316
551 5th Ave
New York, N.Y. 10176

Even before the 2010 earthquake that killed an estimated 200,000 Haitians, the Haitian people and their economy had been devastated by foreign intervention and neoliberal economic policies imposed by the United States and other powers. Today, half a million internally displaced persons (IDPs) still live in camps, and at least half of the rubble from destroyed buildings and infrastructure remains to be cleared. Much of the money pledged by the international community to help with reconstruction has yet to be spent, and the exclusion of Haitians from decision-making means there is little transparency and accountability around existing relief and reconstruction programs. In March 2011 the United States undermined Haitian democracy by supporting flawed elections in Haiti, and used threats to overturn the results. Meanwhile, the United Nations has refused to admit that it is responsible for a cholera outbreak that has killed over 7,000 Haitians. This panel, part of the larger Left Forum conference, discussed ongoing efforts to ensure the accountability of international actors and support the rights of Haitians to determine the future of their country.

March 9, 2012

The Crisis of Care Labor and Family Leave Policies

9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
University of Oregon
Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics
175 Knight Law Center
1585 East 13th Avenue
Eugene, OR 97403

CEPR Senior Economist Eileen Appelbaum took part in a panel discussion on "The Crisis of Care Labor and Family Leave Policies" as part of a larger conference on "Gender Equity and Capitalism." Other panelists included Victoria Lawson, professor of geography at the University of Washington; Debra Schwartz, SEIU 503 care provider division field coordinator; and Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts Amherst. More information on the conference can be found on the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics' website.

March 7, 2012

Kick-Off To Discussion Series On Low-Wage Work

12:00 - 1:30 p.m.
The Aspen Institute
One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 700
Washington, D.C., 20036

The Workforce Strategies Initiative at the Aspen Institute kicked off its new discussion series "Reinventing Low-Wage Work: Ideas That Can Work for Employees, Employers and the Economy" with a conversation titled "From Fast Food to Fine Cuisine: A Discussion on Work in the Restaurant Industry." Invited speakers included Congresswoman Donna Edwards; Saru Jayaraman, executive director of Restaurant Opportunities Center United; Andy Shallal, owner of Busboys and Poets; and John Schmitt, senior economist for the Center for Economic and Policy Research. A video of the event is available below or after the jump.