- On Capitol Hill
- On Wall Street
- In the Press
- Policy Reform Work
Our projects are designed to empower policy makers to create positive change. With a focus on collaboration and outreach, we provide original, standards-based research on key policy issues.
SCEPA joined with the Economic Policy Institute on Capitol Hill to brief congressional staff and policy experts on tax expenditures, or incentives given through the tax code without scrutiny by Congress.
SCEPA economists are working on the prospects for a more progressive economic order to emerge from the shock of the recession. They have published papers and documents that place current events in a longer-term context as well as policy proposals to deal with short-term concerns. They are also documenting the emerging discussion of how the discipline of economics is reacting to the Great Recession and the questioning of conventional economic analysis.
Lance Taylor, a SCEPA Faculty Fellow, presents an overview of his new book, Maynard’s Revenge, in a Google Tech Talk.
The book, published this November by Harvard University Press, is a timely analysis of mainstream macroeconomics, posing the need for a more useful and realistic economic analysis that can provide a better understanding of the ongoing global financial and economic crisis.
The government spends $143 billion through tax breaks in an effort to expand pension coverage and security. Yet, over half of the American workforce does not have a pension. Retirement insecurity hurts business plans, workers’ lives and retiree well-being. Reform is needed.
SCEPA’s Guaranteeing Retirement Income Project, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and in collaboration with Demos and the Economic Policy Institute, has a plan to guarantee safe and secure retirement income for all Americans.
The Epoch Times Covers SCEPA's Climate Change Conference
| TARA MacISAAC/THE EPOCH TIMES |
On September 25th, 2011, The Epoch Times published an article by Tara MacIsaac on SCEPA's 'Bottom Line on Climate Change' conference held last week at The New School. Titled Made Green, Made in America, MacIsaac focused on the presentation of Bob Baugh, Executive Director of the AFL-CIO's Industrial Union Council.
She summarizes, "According to Baugh, American economic strategy is too wishy-washy—it is consumer-driven and depends on Wall Street to set its course. Baugh calls for more government regulation to transform the fossil-fuel industry into a renewable energy industry, and create green jobs."
SCEPA Faculty Fellow and Economics Professor Willi Semmler, who organized the conference, discussed the economic potential of green jobs. "Semmler cites a University of Massachusetts report, which shows that $100 billion of spending would generate 2 million green jobs. He notes that as green jobs are created, jobs in the high-carbon industries will be lost. Though a net gain cannot be definitively proven, Semmler says it is likely a net gain would result."
VIDEO: How Today’s Recession Affects Tomorrow’s Economic Growth
As Americans struggle though the greatest economic calamity since the 1930s, we asked, what will today's recession do to tomorrow?
For too long, economists have assumed that once an economy is deemed 'recovered,' recessions take no future toll. Unfortunately, this view is not supported by either theory or evidence. Deep recessions have the potential to significantly reduce future output by undermining the quality of labor, delaying capital investment, and postponing or eliminating research and development. In fact, depressed markets may become so entrenched that they cannot correct themselves.
On November 9th, 2011, SCEPA Senior Feller Jeff Madrick hosted a discussion with distinguished economists on the permanent, long-term losses caused by deep recessions and propose immediate policy options to stem future losses.
Participants included: William Dickens, Distinguished Professor of Economics and Social Policy at Northeastern University; Bruce Greenwald, Robert Hielbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management at Columbia University; Laurence Ball, Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University; and others.
IMK's Gustav Horn Discusses German Economy in Financial Times
On September 20, Ralph Atkins of the Financial Times quotes Gustav Horn of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) in his article Germany and the Eurozone: Marked by a Miracle: (link requires registration)
"The clash with economic thinking elsewhere “is a sign of the crisis – but it is also a sign of the crisis in the dominant way of economic teaching”, says Gustav Horn of the Düsseldorf-based Hans-Böckler institute. “In the end, Germany will come around – it has to.”
IMK is a sponsor of SCEPA's "Bottom Line on Climate Change: Transitioning to Renewable Energy"
