At a time of fiscal belt tightening, when some would put environmental priorities on the back burner, there are many who believe that investing in a green economy now is the best way to achieve both short and long term economic solutions. A recent paper by the Center for American Progress and the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute, "Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low Carbon Economy," finds that to promote economic mobility, growth, job creation, and regain technological leadership in the global innovation marketplace, we must fundamentally change how we produce and consume energy in this country and transform our economy to a low-carbon model. Investing in clean energy and efficiency will enable the United States to regain technological leadership in the global innovation marketplace, grow our economy, reduce global warming emissions, and invest in national security.

Please join the Center for American Progress and three of the country's leading advocates for investments in a green economy for a discussion on how each step of an economic recovery package (stabilization, stimulus, recovery, and growth) can be greened, and explore both national and state perspectives on policy solutions towards transforming our economy to a low-carbon model.

Copies of Hot, Flat, and Crowded will be available for purchase at the event.

The escalation of fighting in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has brought one of the world's worst humanitarian crises back to the attention of international policymakers. In response, the United Nations (UN) Security Council has authorized three thousand additional troops to reinforce the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC. Last week, U.S. senators Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kans.) passed a joint resolution that called for an immediate cease-fire, highlighting the bipartisan support for more effective U.S. leadership in the region. But even if additional forces can be generated, military might alone is unlikely to end the crisis. What are the underlying causes of the chronic crisis in Eastern Congo, and what further steps might U.S. policymakers take to create a lasting solution?

Discussing ways to solve this continuing conflict will be AEI's Mauro De Lorenzo; Tony Gambino, former U.S. Agency for International Development mission director in the DRC; and Colin Thomas-Jensen, policy adviser for the ENOUGH Project at the Center for American Progress.

This event is cosponsored by AEI and the Center for American Progress's Enough Project.

The U.S. economy is in as serious trouble as at any time in decades. The effects of the financial crisis have moved from Wall Street to the daily opera­tions of business and the daily lives of families. As the economy continues to deteriorate, the need for an economic stimulus and recovery package becomes increasingly pressing.

Please join us for a panel discussion looking at the role and makeup of economic stimulus and recovery legislation. The panel will discuss this issue in general, and in the context of the Center for American Progress' paper on "How to Spend $350 Billion in a First Year of Stimulus and Recovery," which will be released at the event.

Recent survey research confirms that majorities of voters agree with policies historically labeled as progressive or liberal: increasing the minimum wage; providing high-quality, affordable health insurance for every American; making it easier for workers to join unions; transforming our energy production and consumption patterns; and using diplomacy and a mix of American powers to combat terrorism. But as a conservative presidential administration exits, how can progressives step into the breach?

In Search of Progressive America presents ten essays by journalists, academics, and government insiders that address the current state of promise and debate within the Left in U.S. politics. The political atmosphere that confronts progressives still poses challenges, and the authors propose thoughtful ways to create a new political order by building an inclusive, durable coalition.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a lively discussion around the topics in this book with editor Michael Kazin and contributors Ezra Klein and Karen Kornbluh.

Copies of In Search of Progressive America will be available for purchase.

Health care reform—particularly reforms that guarantee affordable coverage for all Americans—has been a frequently sought but never-achieved goal for generations of American policymakers. Now in the wake of a historic election and in the face of a failing economy, the American political system appears poised to once again pursue this elusive ambition.

Our nation has achieved other big social changes, such as the establishment of Social Security, Medicare, and the New Deal and the Great Society, during other moments of crisis. Presidential historian Robert Dallek will discuss the significance of presidential leadership, the importance of relationships between the president and Congress, a public sense of crisis, and other dynamics in broad policy change, and consider whether we are experiencing a confluence of factors today that could help drive health care reform.

The global meltdown has brought home the interconnectedness of the world's finance and trading systems. Failing financial institutions, frozen credit, volatile stock markets, mounting job losses, and painful cuts in wages are impacting the lives of struggling citizens worldwide.

Combined with growing skepticism about globalization, President-elect Barack Obama faces a challenging backdrop to the formulation of his international economic policy. The incoming administration will need to determine the level and objectives of development assistance, trade priorities, an approach to reform of international financial institutions, and a strategy to advance the Decent Work Agenda. Ideally these must be knitted together into an integrated economic policy. The new administration must also work together with progressive partners at home and abroad to address these daunting challenges, drive economic recovery, and strengthen the world economy's virtuous circle of mutually reinforcing gains in living standards.

Discussing these issues, UNDP Secretary General Kemal Dervis and ILO Director-General Juan Somavia will join CAP's Senior Fellow and World Economic Forum Managing Director, Richard Samans.

CAP is grateful to the Heinrich Böll Foundation for their support of this event.

The 2008 presidential campaign ended with a sharp moral debate about the distribution of wealth in the United States. In a timely and provocative work of empirically-grounded social criticism, Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly's new book Unjust Deserts provides powerful new ammunition in that debate. At the center of their argument is the economic impact of socially-created knowledge. As people have solved numerous problems that bewildered and plagued those before us, we have accumulated an immense “stock of knowledge” which now plays a central role in economic growth and is largely responsible for the real income gains that separated the twentieth century from all that came before. This stock of knowledge is a social inheritance, nurtured by governments, institutions, and culture, and created by many generations of people. And yet even as our economic growth has become so highly socialized through the impact of expanding knowledge, the fruits of knowledge—the wealth being generated by knowledge-based growth—flows increasingly to the top. A new aristocracy is reaping huge unearned gains from our collective intellectual wealth.

Copies of Unjust Deserts will be available for purchase.

English language learners are behind their peers the moment they enter school. They must bridge the language gap while keeping pace with non-ELLs academically. Often, the traditional school schedule fails to provide enough opportunity for these students to catch up. Expanded learning time initiatives, schoolwide improvement strategies that lengthen the school day or year for all students, can provide ELLs with the invaluable time to develop English language skills and stay on track academically.

Join us for a discussion on the role that expanded learning time can play in bridging the language and wide academic achievement gap between ELLs and their peers. A new paper from the Center for American Progress, authored by Melissa Lazarin, will launch the discussion. Practitioners at the school- and state-level who have first-hand experience of working with schools with a significant ELL population under an expanded-day/year schedule will also offer their expertise and perspective.

In The Green Collar Economy, acclaimed activist and political advisor Van Jones delivers a real solution that both rescues our economy and saves the environment. The economy is built on and powered almost exclusively by oil, natural gas, and coal—all fast-diminishing nonrenewable resources. As supplies disappear, the price of energy climbs and nearly everything becomes more expensive.

Instead, Jones illustrates how we can invent and invest our way out of the pollution-based grey economy and into the healthy new green economy. Built by a broad coalition deeply rooted in the lives and struggles of ordinary people, this path has the practical benefit of both cutting energy prices and generating enough work to pull the U.S. economy out of its present downward spiral.

There will be a provocative Q&A after the presentation.

Copies of The Green Collar Economy will be available for purchase.