Friday September 18, 2020
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Online Zoom Meeting
Dear Colleagues:
Greetings, and I hope that you and yours are healthy and safe in this socially-distanced time.
As part of that distancing, we’re continuing the “Friday Lunch” as an online event. After over thirty-years of in-person discussions it’s a bit of an adjustment; but this week we will take advantage of the change by hosting a speaker who does not have to come to campus (or Cleveland).
It will be a great pleasure to welcome and hear from Dean Baker. As a co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, he has a record of incisive economic analysis that challenges conventional “wisdom.” That has included critiquing the 1990s discourse about Social Security’s unaffordability, identifying the housing bubble and its risks, calling out how policies supported by conservatives violate market principles (exactly why should import of pharmaceutical products be restricted?) and identifying how the specific rules of globalization favor capital over labor.
The 2020 election will shape U.S. economic policy going forward. The current battle over unemployment benefits, support for state governments, and other issues shows that the two parties differ greatly over macroeconomic principles. But the current recession has its own peculiar, and possibly much-longer-term, dimensions. Just as growth in the early 2000s was strongly related to a peculiar housing market, the recession is especially severe for sectors such as restaurants and hotels, and the workers in those sectors. Increased use of telecommuting – such as for this meeting – could also have long-term effects that are good for some people but quite negative for others. Such structural changes could require policies to re-employ people, or provide the services that new work and travel patterns require, or hopefully both. Join us for discussion as Dr. Baker identifies the key issues and possible responses for recovery from this very peculiar economic shock.
Signing In
This semester’s discussions will begin at 12:30 p.m., the usual time. The meeting will be set up as from Noon to 2:00 p.m., so people are not all signing in at the same time and to allow for the discussion to run a bit long. Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. Every Monday the same information will be posted on our website: fridaylunch.case.edu.
If you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. This week’s link for registration is:
https://cwru.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIkc-6srzwqE9Djl5-rbjpc-tQgiR6vRAh2
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Please e-mail padg@case.edu if you have questions about how the Zoom version of the Friday Lunch will work or any other suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program to share information about the discussions.
Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies
About Our Guest
Dean Baker co-founded the Center for Economic and Policy Research in 1999. His areas of research include housing and macroeconomics, intellectual property, Social Security, Medicare and European labor markets. He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. His blog, “Beat the Press,” provides commentary on economic reporting. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan.
His articles have appeared in many major publications, including the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post, the London Financial Times, and the New York Daily News.
Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:
September 25: Age and Financial Fear. With Christine L. Day, Ph.D, Professor of Political Science, University of New Orleans.
October 2: Leading on Lead Poisoning: New Initiatives in Cleveland and the Role of Research. With Robert L. Fischer, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Co-Director, Center on Urban Poverty & Community Development, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.
October 9: TBA
October 16: Covid-19 and the Economics of Health Care. With J.B. Silvers, Ph.D., John R. Mannix Medical Mutual of Ohio Professor of Health Care Finance.
October 23: COVID-19: Rapid Research and Rapid Revelations. With Mark Cameron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences.
October 30: Election Forecast Discussion. Speakers To Be Determined
November 6: “Banning the Box”: The Substance and Politics of Legislation to Reduce Obstacles to Hiring Felons. With Daniel Shoag, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Economics.
November 13: Targeted Assassinations and Other Red and Not-So-Red Lines. With Shannon E. French, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Inamori Professor of Ethics, and Director, Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence
November 20: What’s the Beef? The Controversy Over the Health Effects of Red Meat. With Hope Barkoukis, Ph.D., Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Professor in Wellness and Preventive Care and Chair, Department of Nutrition.
December 4: The Economics of Sports After (?) COVID-19. With Jonathan Ernest, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Economics. |
