Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2226
Nov 01, 2015
6:00 PM (GMT-5)
Hear why the Federal Reserve should resist calls to raise interest rates in December, and learn how the Fed can prioritize full employment, push for higher wages, and ensure that your constituents share in the economic recovery.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015, 1pm
Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2226
Panelists:
Bill Spriggs, AFL-CIO
Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute
Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Carola Binder, Professor of Economics at Haverford College
Hosted by Rep. John Conyers, Co-Chair of the House Full Employment Caucus
The Federal Reserve is considered by many to be the most important economic policymaking institution in the country. In the wake of the financial crisis, Fed policymakers took extraordinary steps to help our economy recover. Yet years after the recession, labor market participation is the lowest it has been in decades, wage growth is nowhere to be seen, and Black, Latino, and youth unemployment remain above pre-recession levels in many states and cities.
Congress has tasked the Federal Reserve with creating a full employment economy where workers have bargaining power to demand higher wages, and minority workers are less vulnerable to discrimination in the labor market. Yet despite a sluggish recovery and consistently low inflation, Fed policymakers may raise interest rates as soon as mid-December, intentionally slowing down the economy, denying many Americans the chance to experience the jobs recovery, and making it much harder for the Fed to truly fulfill its full employment mandate.
That's why Rep. John Conyers and the co-chairs of the Congressional Full Employment Caucus have introduced the "Full Employment Federal Reserve Act," a bill that strengthens the full employment portion of the Fed's mandate. The bill instructs the Fed to examine factors like wage growth and involuntary part-time work in making decisions about interest rates.
This briefing is an opportunity to hear from leading economists about how the Fed can adopt policies to better facilitate wage growth and create economic stability in our communities. You will also hear testimony from constituents across the nation who are struggling with inadequate wages, insufficient hours, and impractical schedules.
We hope you will join us for this important and timely conversation. To RSVP for the event, please contact Erik Sperling at Rep. Conyers' office at Erik.Sperling [at] mail.house.gov.
