Inequality, Austerity, Jobs and Growth
EPS Bernard L. Schwartz Symposium
Program
Welcoming Remarks: James K. Galbraith — Economists for Peace and Security
Keynote: Sarah Bloom Raskin — Deputy Secretary, US Department of the Treasury (transcript, audio below)
Session One: Jobs, Growth, Wages and Inequality: What's The Agenda? (video, transcript, audio below)
Chair: Allen Sinai — Decision Economics
James K. Galbraith — Economists for Peace & Security
Stephen Rose, — George Washington Institute of Public Policy
Heather Boushey — Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Teresa Ghilarducci — New School (presentation)
Session Two: Austerity and Global Finance: Cure or Poison? (video, transcript)
Chair: Mike Lind
Elena Panaritis — Senior Economic Advisor to the Government of Greece
Mike Konczal — Roosevelt Institute
Josh Bivens — Economic Policy Institute (presentation)
Jeffrey W. Sommers — University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (presentation)
Session Three: Global Security and Economics: Dangers and Hopes (video, transcript)
Chair: Richard Kaufman — Bethesda Research Institute (presentation)
Cyrus Bina — Economists for Peace and Security
Steve Clemons — The Atlantic
Heather Hurlburt — New America Foundation
Bill Hartung — The Center for International Policy
Gallery
Participant Biographies
Cyrus Bina
Cyrus Bina is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Minnesota (Morris Campus), USA. He was a visiting scholar in 2002–2003 and then in 2008–2009 academic years at the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History, Institute of Social Science Research, UCLA. Bina was formerly a fellow (and research associate) at Center for the Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University (1990–1995). He is a political economist, a pioneering theorist of globalization of oil and the unification of all energy; a scholar of globalization of world economy and polity; and a specialist on modern Iran and the contemporary politics in the Middle East. Bina is the author of The Economics of the Oil Crisis (1985), Oil: A Time Machine, Second Edition (2012), and A Prelude to the Foundation of Political Economy: Oil, War, and Global Polity (2013); and co-editor of Modern Capitalism and Islamic Ideology in Iran (1991), Beyond Survival: Wage Labor in the Late Twentieth Century (1996), and Alternative Theories of Competition: Challenges to the Orthodoxy (2013). He has written well over two hundred scholarly articles, including book chapters policy papers, encyclopedia entries; a keynote speaker at several scholarly International conferences; a guest of radio and television (via satellite and otherwise) across the globe, spoken extensively on wide variety of subjects, including oil and energy, US foreign policy, just peacemaking, globalization and change in the balance of power, regional conflict, political Islam, Iran’s economy and polity, ‘Arab Spring’, and war and peace. The editor of forthcoming (three-volume) Global Economics: An Encyclopedia Crisis and Transnational Change, Bina is also a Fellow of Economists for Peace and Security and an editor for the Journal of Critical Studies in Business and Society.
Josh Bivens
Josh Bivens is the Research and Policy Director at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). His areas of research include macroeconomics, fiscal and monetary policy, the economics of globalization, social insurance, and public investment. He frequently appears as an economics expert on news shows, including the Public Broadcasting Service’s “NewsHour,” the “Melissa Harris-Perry” show on MSNBC, WAMU’s “The Diane Rehm Show,” American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” and programs of the BBC.
As a leading policy analyst, Bivens regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress on fiscal and monetary policy, the economic impact of regulations, and other issues. He has also provided analyses for the annual meeting of Project LINK of the United Nations and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Bivens is the author of Failure by Design: The Story behind America’s Broken Economy (EPI and Cornell University Press) and Everybody Wins Except for Most of Us: What Economics Really Teachers About Globalization (EPI). He is the co-author of The State of Working America, 12th Edition (EPI and Cornell University Press) and a co-editor of Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, No Jobs: Labor Markets and Informal Work in Egypt, El Salvador, India, Russia and South Africa (EPI).
His academic articles have appeared in the International Review of Applied Economics, the Journal of Economic Issues and the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Bivens has also provided peer-reviewed articles to several edited collections, including The Handbook of the Political Economy of Financial Crises (Oxford University Press), Public Economics in the United States: How the Federal Government Analyzes and Influences the Economy (ABC-CLIO), and Restoring Shared Prosperity: A Policy Agenda from Leading Keynesian Economists (AFL-CIO and the Macroeconomic Policy Institute).
Prior to becoming Research and Policy Director, Bivens was a research economist at EPI. Before coming to EPI, he was an assistant professor of economics at Roosevelt University and provided consulting services to Oxfam America. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Heather Boushey
Heather Boushey is Executive Director and Chief Economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Her research focuses on economic inequality and public policy, specifically employment, social policy, and family economic well-being. The New York Times has called Boushey one of the “most vibrant voices in the field” and she testifies often before Congress on economic policy issues. Her research has been published in academic journals, she writes regularly for popular media, including The New York Times’ “Room for Debate,” The Atlantic, and Democracy, and she makes frequent television appearances on Bloomberg, MSNBC, CNBC, and PBS. Boushey previously served as an economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and the Economic Policy Institute. She received her Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research and her B.A. from Hampshire College.
Steve Clemons
Steve Clemons is Washington editor at large for The Atlantic and editor of Atlantic Live. He writes frequently about politics and foreign affairs.
Clemons is a senior fellow and the founder of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, a centrist think tank in Washington, DC, where he previously served as executive vice president. He writes and speaks frequently about the DC political scene, foreign policy, and national security issues, as well as domestic and global economic-policy challenges.
James K. Galbraith
James K. Galbraith teaches economics and a variety of other subjects at the LBJ School. He holds degrees from Harvard (B.A. magna cum laude, 1974) and Yale (Ph.D. in economics, 1981). He studied economics as a Marshall Scholar at King's College, Cambridge in 1974-1975, and then served in several positions on the staff of the U.S. Congress, including Executive Director of the Joint Economic Committee. He was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in 1985. He directed the LBJ School's Ph.D. Program in Public Policy from 1995 to 1997. He directs the University of Texas Inequality Project, an informal research group based at the LBJ School. Galbraith maintains several outside connections, including serving as a Senior Scholar of the Levy Economics Institute and as Chair of the Board of Economists for Peace and Security. He writes a column called "Econoclast" for Mother Jones, and occasional commentary in many other publications, including The Texas Observer, The American Prospect, and The Nation. He is an occasional commentator for Public Radio International's Marketplace.
Teresa Ghilarducci
Teresa Ghilarducci is a labor economist and nationally recognized expert in retirement security. Teresa holds the Bernard L. and Irene Schwartz Chair in economic policy analysis and directs the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA) that focuses on economic policy research and outreach.
Ghilarducci joined The New School in 2008 after 25 years as a professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame. Her most recent book — When I’m Sixty Four: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them — investigates the loss of pensions on older Americans and proposes a comprehensive system of reform. Her previous books include Labor's Capital: The Economics and Politics of Employer Pensions, winner of an Association of American Publishers award in 1992, and Portable Pension Plans for Casual Labor Markets, published in 1995.
Bill Hartung
Bill Hartung is the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex (Nation Books, 2011) and the co-editor, with Miriam Pemberton, of Lessons from Iraq: Avoiding the Next War (Paradigm Press, 2008). His previous books include And Weapons for All (HarperCollins, 1995), a critique of US arms sales policies from the Nixon through Clinton administrations. From July 2007 through March 2011, Mr. Hartung was the director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. Prior to that, he served as the director of the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute. He also worked as a speechwriter and policy analyst for New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams. Bill Hartung’s articles on security issues have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and the World Policy Journal. He has been a featured expert on national security issues on CBS 60 Minutes, NBC Nightly News, the Lehrer Newshour, CNN, Fox News, and scores of local, regional, and international radio outlets. He blogs for the Huffington Post and TPM Café.
Heather Hurlburt
Heather Hurlburt’s policy work focuses primarily on the politics of US foreign policy, counter-terrorism and resilience, and the nexus of civilian and military approaches to conflict resolution. She has previously served in the White House, State Department and Congress and held leadership positions in Washington-based non-governmental organizations. Before joining NSN, Hurlburt ran her own communications and strategy practice, working on global and political issues with political, entertainment, and educational leaders. From 1995–2001, Hurlburt served in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant and Speechwriter to the President, speechwriter for Secretaries of State Albright and Christopher, and member of the State Department’s Policy Planning staff. She has also worked for the International Crisis Group, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Congressional Helsinki Commission. In 2012, Hurlburt was named to Foreign Policy’s “FP Top 50”. She appears frequently as a commentator in print and new media and her work has been published by the New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Guardian, POLITICO, and New Republic. Hurlburt holds a BA from Brown University and an MA from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.
Richard Kaufman
Richard Kaufman is a member of the board of directors and a vice chair of Economists for Peace and Security, and Director of Bethesda Research Institute, which he founded. He was formerly a staff economist and general counsel of the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress. At the Joint Economic Committee he directed numerous investigations of the Pentagon and its spending and contracting practices. As he would point out, that was at a time when there was more rigorous and relevant congressional oversight than we have had over the past 8 years, and when oversight meant to look hard, not to hardly look.
Mike Konczal
Mike Konczal is a fellow with the Roosevelt Institute, where he works on financial reform, unemployment, inequality, and a progressive vision of the economy. His blog, Rortybomb, was named one of the 25 Best Financial Blogs by Time Magazine. A contributor to The Nation, his writing has appeared in the Boston Review, Democracy, The American Prospect, the Washington Monthly, Slate and Dissent, and he’s appeared on PBS Newshour, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, CNN, Marketplace and more.
Michael Lind
Michael Lind is a co-founder of the New America Foundation, where he is Policy Director of its Economic Growth Program and Next Social Contract Initiative. A former editor or staff writer at Harper’s Magazine, The New Yorker, The New Republic and The National Interest, he has taught at Harvard and Johns Hopkins. He is the author of a number of books of history, political journalism, fiction and poetry, including The Next American Nation (1995) and The American Way of Strategy (2006). His most recent book is Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States. He is a member of the board of Economists for Peace and Security.
Elena Panaritis
Elena Panaritis is an economist with specialization in structural reforms and property rights. She is a policy innovator and impact investor. She serves as Senior Economic advisor to the Government of Greece and has been special envoy of the sovereign debt and bail-out negotiations. She also served as Member of the Hellenic Parliament in 2009–2012. One does find Elena, with T4A or alone, advising a number of governments. She led the creation of Thought for Action an international innovative change-making agent, and knowledge platform. T4A looks for ways to improve the lives of others through improved governance, innovation, and interactive knowledge sharing of best and worst practices. Her disrupting development model is based in promoting the importance of structural reforms (in innovation, security of property rights, investment, governance, and public sector) to growth and prosperity. Special attention is given in the elimination of informality and shadow economy; Socio-Economic impact assessments of institutional/structural reforms; the reasons for lack of growth in specific markets.
She engages innovators, and thought leaders globally (including Economics Nobel laureates, and awarded practitioners). The countries of practical experience are over 30.
She is the CEO and Founder of Panel Group, a triple-bottom-line impact investment, social enterprise, that provides counsel to governments and investors on transforming illiquid markets and engaging in public sector reform. She served as President of COMSUD, a network of parliamentarians and policy advisers for the depollutization of the Mediterranean Sea, from 2009 to 2013.
In more than a decade as an economist at the World Bank, Elena spearheaded several structural (also known as institutional) reforms including property rights reform in Peru that received International Best Practice and Innovation awards from the US Government and the World Bank – as she benefited over fifteen (15) Million People and her work had a return of 200x. Her book Prosperity Unbound: Building Property Markets with Trust (Palgrave Macmillan) recounts her experience and expounds on her methodology- Reality Check Analysis, which is considered one of the best practical applications of institutional economics to property rights reform issues. Ms. Panaritis has taught economic development, housing finance and property markets reform courses at the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, INSEAD, and the Johns Hopkins University- School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Sarah Bloom Raskin
Sarah Bloom Raskin is Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, a position for which she was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 12, 2014. In addition to the broad range of substantive and organizational issues she oversees and directs at the Treasury Department, Ms. Raskin focuses on the macroeconomic impact of student loan borrowing, and cyber security, as well as drivers that bolster and sustain U.S. and global economic growth and recovery.
Prior to her confirmation as Deputy Secretary, Ms. Raskin served as a Governor of the Federal Reserve Board where she conducted the nation’s monetary policy as a member of the Federal Open Markets Committee, regulated banking institutions, monitored threats to financial stability, oversaw compliance and community development, and engaged in oversight of the nation’s payment systems. In addition, she chaired the Board’s Committee on Board Affairs as the Board’s Administrative Governor. She was confirmed to the Federal Reserve by the United States Senate on September 30, 2010.
Before joining the Federal Reserve Board, Ms. Raskin served as the Commissioner of Financial Regulation for the State of Maryland from 2007 to 2010. As Commissioner, during and after the financial crisis, she and her agency were responsible for regulating Maryland’s financial institutions, including all state-chartered depository institutions, banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, mortgage servicers, and trust companies, among others.
Throughout her career, Ms. Raskin has worked across the public and private sectors in both legal and regulatory capacities. Her work has centered on the landscape for financial services, regional and community banks, financial market utilities, consumer protection issues, economic growth and income inequality, and Dodd-Frank implementation, including the Volcker Rule, enhanced prudential standards, and resolution planning. Ms. Raskin’s private sector and senior executive experience includes having served as Managing Director at the Promontory Financial Group, General Counsel of the WorldWide Retail Exchange, and General Counsel of Columbia Energy Services Corporation. Earlier in her career she served as Banking Counsel for the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Ms. Raskin has engaged with the media and myriad audiences to discuss fiscal and economic issues. Her remarks often focus on the effect of economic conditions and policies on the middle class in particular. Ms. Raskin received her B.A. in economics from Amherst College, and she received her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is married and has three children.
Stephen Rose
Dr. Rose is a nationally recognized labor economist who has been doing innovative research and writing about social class in America for the last 30 years. His Social Stratification in the United States was originally published in 1978 and the seventh edition is due out in February, 2015. His recent book, Rebound: Why America Will Emerge Stronger from the Financial Crisis, addresses the causes of the financial crisis and the evolving structure of the US economy over the last three decades. Rose has held senior positions at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, Educational Testing Service, the US Department of Labor, Joint Economic Committee of Congress, the National Commission for Employment Policy, and the Washington State Senate. His commentaries have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other print and broadcast media. He has a BA from Princeton University and an MA and Ph.D in economics from The City University of New York.
Allen Sinai
Dr. Allen Sinai is CEO, Co-Founder and Chief Global Economist and Strategist of Decision Economics. Prior to DE, he was Chief Economist at Lehman Brothers and The Boston Company (1983–96). Prior to Lehman, Dr. Sinai was Chief Financial Economist at Data Resources, Inc. (1971–1983), a pioneer in new techniques of econometric modeling. Dr. Sinai has also been a non-partisan adviser and consultant to multiple facets of the US Government including past Presidential Administrations, House and Senate Committees. He meets regularly with fiscal and monetary policy leaders globally including Japan, Europe, and Asia, on current matters relating to the economy, macroeconomic policy and financial markets. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University and an A.B. from the University of Michigan.
Jeffrey Sommers
Jeffrey Sommers received his MA at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and in 2001 his PhD at Northeastern University, concentrating on global political economy. He has worked as a Fulbright scholar at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga), and the Center for European and Transition Studies, in Latvia. He has been a member of the policy group Reform Task Force Latvia. Today Jeffrey Sommers is Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and visiting faculty at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. His research and teaching interests revolve around the “spatial fixes” to crises of global capital accumulation. Further research to this end centers on the political economy of Africa’s, and the African diaspora’s accelerated integration into new networks of accumulation. Other areas of investigation include development studies, developmental states, international political economy and hegemonic transitions.