Dec 31, 2015
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (GMT-5)
Ever considered why the eurozone has ended up with an unemployment rate more than twice that of the United States, seven years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers? Or why the vast majority of low- and middle-income countries suffered a prolonged economic slowdown in the last two decades of the 20th century? These questions don't have much prominence in current presidential debates, but they are very relevant to some that do, including the current prospects for the U.S. economy and the global economic turbulence. They are examined in the new book, "Failed: What the 'Experts' Got Wrong about the Global Economy" (Oxford University Press, 2015), by economist Mark Weisbrot. Mark will speak and sign books at Prairie Lights Books, 15 South Dubuque Street in Iowa City on Saturday, January 30 at 2:00 PM.
According to Weisbrot, understanding the recent history of economic policy failures — and successes — can provide many important lessons to presidential candidates and other policy makers. Weisbrot argues that many of the most important economic developments of recent years have been widely misunderstood—and in some cases almost completely ignored. He claims that the European authorities' political agenda, which has included shrinking the welfare state, reducing healthcare, pension and other social spending, and reducing the bargaining power of labor, played a very important role in prolonging the eurozone's financial crisis, additional years of recession, and current levels of mass unemployment.
Weisbrot examines the history of other financial crises, recessions, and recoveries, and argues that there are always economic policy options that would avoid long-term economic failures. Weisbrot examines what U.S. policy makers and the Fed did right — and what they could have done better — and what can be learned from the negative example of Europe over the past six years.
The historic, decades-long economic decline in the vast majority of developing countries at the end of the 20th century constitute the third part of the book's narrative. Weisbrot also examines the economic causes and consequences of Latin America's "second independence" and economic rebound in the 21st century, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
Mark Weisbrot is Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan. He is co-author, with Dean Baker, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis, and has written numerous research papers on economic policy. He writes a column on economic and policy issues that is distributed to over 550 newspapers by the Tribune Content Agency. His opinion pieces have appeared in The Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and most major U.S. newspapers, as well as in Brazil's largest newspaper, Folha de São Paulo. He appears regularly on national and local television and radio programs. He is also president of Just Foreign Policy.
