The CCPA organized a very successful economist roundtable yesterday on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The event was titled "The Global Economic Crisis: Can Canada Escape a Lost Decade?". MPs from all parties were invited as were members from a wide variety of civil society organizations. The attendance was very robust.
It provided an opportunity for political observers to catch a glimpse of the work progressive economists are doing, not only in Canada, but also internationally. The major international keynote speakers were Yanis Varoufakis, Stephanie Griffith-Jones and Thomas Palley.
Yanis transcribed his notes on his own blog, which you can read here. It is an illuminating look at what he sees as the major trends affecting Canada and the world over the past 50 years. His recent book The Global Minotaur: America, the true origins of the financial crisis, and the future of the world economy mirrors several of those themes.
Thomas Palley is also in the process of publishing an upcoming book titled "From Financial Crisis to Stagnation: The Destruction of Shared Prosperity and The Role of Economics". The premise is that through a restructuring of economic relationships in the 1980s, regular workers were cut out of the equation and that shared prosperity is now at stake if the current situation continues.
Stephanie Griffith-Jones has recently co-edited the book Time for a Visible Hand: Lessons from the World Financial Crisis with Joseph Stiglitz.
The entire day was filmed by CPAC, and you can watch the keynote speeches online here:
<li><a href="http://www.cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp=template&act=view3&pagetype=vod&hl=e&clipID=6469" target="_blank">Keynote I: Perspectives on the global crisis and what to do</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp=template&act=view3&pagetype=vod&hl=e&clipID=6503" target="_blank">Keynote II: Perspective on the U.S. and the global crisis, and the way forward</a></li>
