Public Seminar: The Thelma-and-Louise-Gambit

The New School’s Michael Quirk reflects on the economic and political effects of Britain’s referendum vote to leave the European Union: Brexit is, in fact a Thelma-and-Louise-gambit that could not only destroy the political and economic stability of Great Britain and the EU, but could usher in a wave of radical Right-wing nationalism across the

Teresa Ghilarducci quoted in Bloomberg coverage of Bipartisan Policy Center report

Heilbroner Center Affiliate Teresa Ghilarducci contributed to a Bipartisan Policy Center report on retirement reform. Bloomberg | High Earners Are Going to Hate These Retirement Proposals By Suzanne Woolley June 9, 2016   A 146-page report on how to fix Social Security and more.   For the past two years, a commission made up of 19 high-profile people from the academic,

Teresa Ghilarducci on Marketwatch: The dangers of low interest rates

Heilbroner Center Affiliate Teresa Ghilarducci argues that “permanent austerity,” not low interest rates, is to blame for low returns to retirement plans.   “Why maybe the Fed isn’t to blame for paltry retirement-plan returns” Marketwatch, Published: June 13, 2016 3:28 p.m. ET Experts at a conference sponsored by Pensions & Investments point to a different culprit. By

Julia Ott in The Nation: 5 Books that Tackle Capitalism

Heilbroner Center Director Julia Ott provided The Nation magazine with a list of five recent university press books that are “fundamental to understanding our current crisis.” A quick look at her list: MAHOGANY The Costs of Luxury 
in Early America by Jennifer L. Anderson LAND OF THE FEE Hidden Costs and the Decline of the American

Robert Heilbroner’s Continuing Influence as a “Marginalized Economist”

In her guest post for the Society of U.S. Intellectual History Blog, titled “Marginalized Economists: Revisiting Robert Heilbroner,” Rachel M. Cohen argues for the continuing significance of “arguably the most prominent dissenting American economist of the late twentieth century.” “While historians have begun to take interest in the history of economic thought, the tendency to

Public Seminar: Restoring Security by (Re)discovering the Culture of Flexible Work

Public Seminar this week features Brent Cebul’s reflections on precarity and flexible workplaces. By the early 1990s, Jay Chiat had reached the pinnacle of the advertising world thanks to his firm’s iconic campaigns, especially the Absolut Vodka bottle print ads and Apple’s “Think Different” and “1984” spots. Flush with cash, Chiat commissioned the architect Frank Gehry to design

Public Seminar: Class, Gender and Creative Industries

On Public Seminar this week, McKenzie Wark reflects on the creative industries. The fate of cultural studies in the United States appears to be twofold. On the one hand, it still generates moral panic. Right-wing nut-jobbers think that “cultural Marxism” is some insidious, decadent creed, probably created by Jews and Blacks to destroy America. On the other

Public Seminar: The Green Growth Path to Climate Stabilization

On Public Seminar this week, Robert Pollin weighs in on the dilemma of green growth. “The World Resources Council recently reported that between 2000 and 2014, 21 countries, including the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Spain and Sweden, all managed to “decouple” GDP growth from CO2 emissions — i.e. GDP in these countries expanded over this

Teresa Ghilarducci’s retirement policies in Money Magazine

The post cites research by Teresa Ghilarducci at The New School’s Schwarz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, which shows that low-income households are more likely than high- or middle-income households to “raid their retirement savings” when experiencing an income shock. A possible solution? “Mandatory savings accounts with no early access.” Read the article here: How