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Regular readers know Dean Baker for his FDL columns, his wonderful books, his uncompromising intellect and his insights on everything from the bank bailouts to unemployment to bad economic reporting. Mark Weisbrot joined us in trying to stop the IMF bailout earlier this year, and focuses on international economic issues like blocking bad trade bills and debunking media lies about South American.
Together they are the co-directors of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It was started in 1999 with a total budget of $120,000, and they’re having a fundraiser today because it’s grown somewhat since then:
CEPR was mentioned over 6,650 times in various media in 2008 (an average of over 18 per day), far surpassing the previous year’s record high of 2,500. Over the course of the past year, CEPR was cited 37 times in the New York Times and 33 times in the Wall Street Journal. CEPR staff gave almost 250 TV and radio interviews last year alone. From its humble beginnings, CEPR has grown in both size and stature.
They are unique among a generation of economists who seem to have been captured by the neoliberal orthodoxy that has facilitated an upward redistribution of wealth across the globe. It was Dean who first warned of the housing bubble in 2002, and Dean who argued against the bank bailout when other economists were crying doom, claiming that the world would face a collapse of the financial system without it:
How do you make a DC intellectual look less articulate than Sarah Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric? That’s easy. You ask them how failure to pass the bailout will give us a Great Depression.
In a city whose liberal establishment have turned themselves into one giant veal pen, CEPR is definitely not in the veal pen. I don’t know how they do it — because, let me tell you, writing about finance in a way that isn’t "Wall Street friendly" is not a way to make friends in this town.
I’m at CEPR tonight celebrating with them. Wherever you are tonight, please join us, and consider making a donation to CEPR to keep it going. We’ll be live on the YouStream above, taking questions that you leave in the comments.
Happy birthday, CEPR, and here’s hoping we celebrate many, many more with you because you are invaluable.
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Welcome to Firedoglake and congratulations!
Happy Birthday..)
woohoo – congratulations on 10 fantabulous years.
is the cepr of today what you envisioned 10 years ago?
and where are you headed?
I worked on Mark Weisbrot’s unsuccessful Congressional Campaign back in 1992 in Urbana, IL.
Nice guy.
What were the obstacles you faced when you first started your organization?
Oh come on. You’re dying to know about the housing bubble. Right? Come on, this is your chance…
Happy Birthday, and a big wave to Jane. Question–The SCOTUS case involving personhood of corporations and campaign contributions, how do you guys see the potential outcomes of this decision?
I can’t afford to talk about it. /s
I would like to know if their are any solid numbers available for use in demonstrating how we can bring our troops home, apply stimulus, and employ a whole bunch of people in an endeavor to turn our economy energy green?
As if our lives depended on it.
Yes, indeed! What a treat to mix these medias! Whocouldanode!
If we audit the Fed will we get an accounting of those trillions of dollars?
The Wall Street Journal is just one of the papers writing about the shadow foreclosure problem, houses that are not being foreclosed now but will be later.
What do you think is the best way to deal with the huge overhang that exists and might be coming down the road?
It’s great that there are still orgs doing good work on politics & ecomonics. Lord knows the major think tanks have all sold out. Congrats on 10.
Bernanke doesn’t have that many digits.
lol
OK, when does China’s debt bubble invert?
According to the Financial Times, non-performing loans are rising sharply while some bank reserves are several points below guidance (10%). This is the formula for insolvency. My guess is that they have less than a year before debt service fails to keep up.
There is no republican “the economy is strong” mythology on this unfolding scenario. Maybe it is because republicans only have rear-view mirrors.
So a synchronized global deflationary episode may yet get underway as China mines their great financial reserves for sufficiency. As the largest foreign holder of US debt, they might have an influence on the availability of credit here at home. They want our technology however so we’ll have to sell them alot of innovation as this thing unfolds.
Let’s get innovating! (go Gary Locke!)
http://www.readwriteweb.com/re…..ups-ne.php
Chinese banks have been bankrupt for as long as I can remember.
Govt has plenty of reserves to bail ‘em out.
That’s pretty much what Mark and Dean just said.
Congratulations, Dean, Mark and everyone at CEPR.
Heh. Didn’t notice that it was a live video. I’m watching KO.
Congratulations on your anniversary!
To what do you ascribe your economist co-colleagues’ pre-emption into the neoliberal Wall-Street friendly veal pen? Why is it hard for people in your line of work to remain independent and speak without taint?
You think I didn’t ask the question first thing out of the gate?
;)
you know me better than that
Mark don’t forget that Lannie davis , the sec of states former campaign manager actually represents the coup’s backers .
Lanny doesn’t care about human rights abuses, just don’t say “blowjob.”
Hardening of the categories and which side your bread is buttered on. I was in one of the few positions on Wall St. where I could write what I wanted, as long as I was right often enough. They did think I was a bit to the left of center (my specialty was forecasting the economy, not talking about policy, so political leanings were not relevent), but my work was highly analytical & data (i.e., evidence) intensive, so there was little for them to criticize. But if you’re in a job where your pay depends on your politics, the usual happens. As for the higher ups in all the admins, it’s the Goldman Sachs mafia.
Some economists like faber predict a complete collapse based on GDP to debt . They say the markets are up because we are printing money furiously.
Faber has a great interview on bloomberg , here’s the video .
US Govt May Fail In 5 To 10 Years -
http://www.informationclearing…..e23560.htm
tuned in late, missed that one!
Borrowing and printing money , sounds like you think the fundamentals are strong .
You said you were Chicago boys ?
Isn’t the debt to GDP at 375 % now ?
I just heard “It’s not comparable to the great depression…”
Ecosystem collapse stems from sequential waves of systemic dysfunction.
One doozy of a credit crunch has produced the “Great Recession” (so far). Is it chicken-little-ism to be wary of the woes of an obsolete political economy? It almost sounds like rich people have nothing to worry about. I believe everyone needs food clothing and shelter…no?
That is to say — can the landlord continue to extract a monopolistic rent on overcapacity? Our plant and equipment investment must sustain a population that can’t sustain itself. It needs something beyond regulation — it needs the elegance of simplicity as well as the effulgence of diversity.
Innovation can produce continuously sustainable change if applied altruistically. That’s adaptivity. That’s my point of view.
I have predicting bigtime depression in 2011 for some time now. The bailouts have sloshed over into the stock and commodities markets creating mini-bubbles in them. This enticed in bigger, slower moving players like pension funds but a lot of the “smart” money has been exiting. So what I call the suckers market looks mature and could head south anytime. I’m thinking it will be a hard winter.
Thanks to Dean, Mark, and Jane for a terrific interview!
I really apreciated your closing remarks Mark , but still you are admitting that more debt will be nessecary to stimulate growth and jobs and I worry that the rally is being produced artificially and must eventually come back to haunt us .
I however am a layman and hope you are right .
Necessary ooops .
The rally is not stimulus. It’s just a government funded casino. What we do need is stimulus in the real economy to produce jobs and keep us from depression. But you have to understand, the bursting of the $8 trillion housing bubble didn’t cause our elites to get religion and start addressing our economic and financial issues in a realistic way. The following year the financial meltdown came and our elites dumped trillions on the banks but kept the system the same. So even when depression hits with a vengeance, they may react but they almost certainly won’t react effectively. It just isn’t in them, either party.
My feeling exactly .
A day later, but I had to come back to let you know how much I enjoyed the interview. Thanks.