presented by New York Union for Radical Political Economics and the Brecht Forum
at the Brecht Forum, 122 West 27th St., 10th floor (between 6th and 7th)
212-242-4201
Sliding Scale: $6/$8/$10
7:30 pm
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CAPITALISM AND THE CANDIDATES:
CAN THEIR ECONOMIC PROGRAMS WORK?
Friday October 15
High unemployment, low wages, poverty, increasing inequality of income and wealth, racial and gender disparities, inadequate and unaffordable health care and education, huge trade deficits, growing personal and corporate debt, speculative bubbles that later burst, trade and development policies that alienate and impoverish other countries, energy wars -- these are some of the economic problems facing the next US President.
Our panelists will look at the economic visions the candidates are presenting, and respond to the following questions as they apply to their own areas of expertise:
1. What are the similarities and differences between the economic proposals of Bush and Kerry?
2. What are the limitations of these policy proposals in the context of our capitalist economic system? Which of the economic problems and trends mentioned above are beyond the scope of anything Bush or Kerry might suggest?
4. Are the third party candidates offering anything better? What policies would you recommend?
SPEAKERS:
Edwin Dickens teaches economics at St. Peter's College in Jersey City.
He has taught Monetary Theory and Policy, Financial Economics, and Political
Economy of Monetary Policy, and was director of the Wall Street Program
at Drew University.
Paddy Quick is a long-time member of the Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) and a founding member of the URPE Women's Caucus. She teaches economics at St. Francis College, Brooklyn, including courses on U.S. economic history, the European Union, and gender.
Max Fraad Wolff is a doctoral candidate in economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and has just completed work in a film and book project entitled Hijacking Catastrophe from the Media Education Foundation and Interlink Books. He is a regular commentator on US equity markets and foreign policy.
Paddy Quick is a long-time member of the Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) and a founding member of the URPE Women's Caucus. She teaches economics at St. Francis College, Brooklyn, including courses on U.S. economic history, the European Union, and gender.
Max Fraad Wolff is a doctoral candidate in economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and has just completed work in a film and book project entitled Hijacking Catastrophe from the Media Education Foundation and Interlink Books. He is a regular commentator on US equity markets and foreign policy.
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BOOK PARTY AND DISCUSSION:
"THE RAW DEAL"
by Ellen Frank
Refreshments will be served.
Thursday, October 21
In her new book, The Raw Deal, Ellen Frank argues that working class Americans are systematically misled about their economic interests. From the myth of the democratic stock market to the near deification of Alan Greenspan and the Fed, the preoccupations of Wall Street's financial elite today dominate economic policy and rhetoric, foreclosing public discussion of a more humane and democratic economy.
SPEAKER:
Ellen Frank holds a PhD in economics and has taught economics at Emmanuel College, Wellesley College and the University of New Hampshire. She has written extensively on US macro-economic policy, financial markets,Social Security, as well as state and local tax policy.
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OUTSOURCING REVISITED:
TWO VIEWS ON A DIRECTION FOR THE US LABOR MOVEMENT
Wednesday November 17
Last Spring URPE presented a panel called "The Changing Structure of Capitalism: Job Losses and Class Struggles" in which the panelists discussed the restructuring of jobs that has taken place in recent years: destroying unions and lowering wages, moving industrial jobs to low-wage regions of the US and the world, promoting prison and workfare labor, exploiting immigrants, and most recently, sending high-paying programming jobs to countries that pay lower salaries.
This fall we would like to follow up that discussion with an exploration of job preservation strategies that are in use or under consideration today. These strategies vary greatly, and include campaigns to "Buy American," tariffs on imports, taxes on companies that moves jobs abroad, laws that require government agencies to hire and purchase domestically, as well as strong support for international labor movements and better global working conditions. Our panelists will talk about which strategies are likely to be effective, and which are good for workers in other countries as well as workers in the US. They will explain the political/economic basis for their recommendations.
SPEAKERS:
Mark Levinson is Chief Economist and Director of Policy at UNITE HERE. He has testified before Congress on issues related to outsourcing.
Ali Mir teaches information systems at William Paterson University. His recent work has focused on immigration issues, international divisions of labor, and progressive Urdu poetry.
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BOOK PARTY AND DISCUSSION:
"OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY: THE CORPORATE MUGGING OF AMERICA"
by Nomi Prins
Refreshments will be served.
Wednesday, December 1
Other People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America (The New Press, 2004) is a devastating exposé into the much publicized corporate malfeasance of recent years. Prins examines the first years of the Bush administration during which some of America’s most prominent corporate executives cashed out billions of dollars in stock options before driving their companies to ruin through fraud and bankruptcy. In their wake they left a tangle of lost jobs, depleted pensions, and shattered lives. With an insider’s eye, Prins uncovers the old-boy networks and hot-money flows between Wall Street, Corporate America, and Capitol Hill, and exposes the whitewash reforms brought in to control them.
SPEAKER:
Nomi Prins has held posts as managing director at Goldman Sachs, senior managing director at Bear Stearns, as well as senior positions at Lehman Brothers and the Chase Manhattan Bank. She has written for Newsday, Fortune, The Guardian, Left Business Observer, and La Vanguardia. She is a senior fellow with the public policy center Demos.
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The Union for Radical Political Economics is an interdisciplinary association devoted to the study, development and application of radical political economic analysis to social problems. Opinions expressed in talks by URPE speakers are those of the individual, not of URPE as an organization.
TO CONTACT URPE:
Website: www.urpe.org
National Office: [EMAIL PROTECTED], 413-577-0806
Economy Connection (speakers/resources): http://www.urpe.org/ec-home.html; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Review of Radical Political Economics: http://urpe.org/rrpehome.html; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
