Pulling Together: Re-Building Economic Security in the 21st Century
Featured Speakers:
Jared Bernstein, Director of the Living Standards program, Economic Policy Institute and Author, All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy
Paul Krugman, New York Times Columnist, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University
Gene B. Sperling, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress and Author, The Pro-Growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity
Louis Uchitelle, Economics Writer, New York Times and Author, The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences
All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy, The Pro-Growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity, and The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences will be available for purchase by Reiters Books at the event.
Moderated by:
Cassandra Q. Butts, Senior Vice President for Domestic Policy, Center for American Progress
Accelerating competition, the inexorable march of technology, and the convergence of globalization are among the powerful forces that have collided to shape today’s “dynamism” economy. These forces, combined with public policies that are grounded in a “you’re on your own” mindset, have led to a fraying of the social contract and a gnawing sense of economic insecurity for a large and growing number of Americans.
At the same time, a large and growing gap has evolved between overall economic growth and the living standards of many working families. Workers are more exposed than before to layoffs and loss of related lifelines, such as health care coverage and retirement savings. The consequences of employees’ perceptions that they and their jobs are “disposable” extend far beyond the economic – there are real psychological and social costs as well.
What has led to this sense of insecurity and what can we do about it? Many believe that now is the time to move away from individual-centric policies and embrace policies that reflect the notion that “we’re in this together.” If so, what can and should be the approach to restoring a set of policies and institutions to meet these challenges? What are the appropriate roles of government, corporations, and individuals?
Through the lens of three recently published books and the rich perspectives of our four panelists, this candid and spirited discussion will explore both the nature of – and potential solutions to – these important and difficult challenges to America’s workers and their families.
Resources
Video
Note: All video provided in QuickTime (MPEG-4) format.
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
Program: 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
Lunch will be served at 12:30 PM
Admission is free.
Center for American Progress
1333 H Street NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Maps and Directions
Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center
To RSVP, please vist: center-for-american-progress.vipdev.lndo.site/econsecurityrsvp
For more information, please call (202) 741-6246
Biographies
Dr. Jared Bernstein joined the Economic Policy Institute in 1992. He is the author of the new book, All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy. His areas of research include income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, low-wage labor markets and poverty, international comparisons, and the analysis of federal and state economic policies. Between 1995 and 1996, he held the post of deputy chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. He is the co-author of seven editions of the book State of Working America and has published extensively in popular and academic venues, including The New York Times, Washington Post, American Prospect, and Research in Economics and Statistics. Jared received his Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Columbia University.
Dr. Paul Krugman is the author or editor of dozens of books and severalhundred articles, primarily about international trade and international finance, and is also nationally known for his twice- weekly columns in The New York Times. He was the Ford International Professor of International Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has served on the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers. He was the recipient of the 1991 John Bates Clark Medal, an award given every two years by the American Economic Association to an economist under 40. Dr. Krugman received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Gene B. Sperling is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. He served in the Clinton administration as the President’s National Economic Adviser and Director of the National Economic Council. Mr. Sperling was the third person to hold the role of chief economic adviser in the White House, following Robert Rubin and Laura Tyson. Mr. Sperling, who served as either National Economic Adviser or as Deputy NEC Director for all eight years, was called by Mr. Clinton “the MVP” of the economic team. As Director of the NEC, Mr. Sperling was responsible for coordinating domestic and international economic cabinet members. Mr. Sperling coordinated the President’s Social Security and debt reduction efforts, and played a key role in such initiatives as the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act, the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and technology literacy initiative. Mr. Sperling also works on a variety of economic and international issues in several capacities: he is Senior Fellow for Economic Policy and Director of the Center on Universal Education at the Council of Foreign Relations; a weekly Economic Columnist for Bloomberg News; a frequent commentator on CNBC, Bloomberg Television, CNN, and Evening News on federal reserve policy, consumer confidence, and tax and budget issues; and is a contributing writer and consultant on NBC television drama, The West Wing.
Louis Uchitelle has covered economics for The New York Times since 1987, focusing on labor and business issues and traveling widely in the United States. He shared a George Polk award for a series of seven articles, The Downsizing of America, published in The Times in 1996, that explored the layoff phenomenon. He was a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York in 2002-2003 and he taught journalism for many years at Columbia University’s School of General Studies. Before joining The Times, Mr. Uchitelle worked for The Associated Press as a reporter, editor and foreign correspondent in Latin America. He and his wife, Joan Uchitelle, live in Scarsdale, N.Y. They have two grown daughters.
Cassandra Q. Butts is Senior Vice President for Domestic Policy. Prior to joining The Center for American Progress, she was a senior advisor to Representative Richard A. Gephardt and volunteered as the policy director on his 2004 presidential campaign. Cassandra coordinated the formulation of policy on Rep. Gephardt’s presidential campaign that included a universal health care plan and economic development proposals. In her seven years of work for Rep. Gephardt during his tenure as the House Democratic Leader, Cassandra was a principal adviser on matters involving the judiciary, financial services and information technology. She provided counsel and strategic advice to the Democratic Leader on a range of major proposals that came before the U.S. Congress including the 1998 presidential impeachment and legislation related to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, including the drafting of the groundbreaking September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. In July 2000, she also served as an international election observer to the Zimbabwe parliamentary elections. Prior to her service with Rep. Gephardt, Cassandra was an Assistant Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, where she worked on civil rights policy and litigated voting rights and school desegregation cases. She also served as Legislative Counsel to Senator Harris L. Wofford of Pennsylvania. Cassandra is a recipient of the Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship and the Stennis Congressional Staff Fellowship. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.