Monday, August 20, 2007

What's the Economy for, Anyway?

This conference information is from the Take Back Your Time web site:

WHEN:
October 5-7, 2007

WHERE: Washington DC Convention Center (part of the annual Green Festival)

COST: $35 (entire conference, advance registration) or $50 (entire conference, no advance registration or $25 per day). Conference fee includes free admission to Green Festival.
What’s the economy for, anyway? Is it just about having the biggest GDP or the highest Dow Jones Average? Or is it about providing for a healthy, happy, fair and sustainable society? If you think quality of life matters, and wonder how the United States compares to other countries when it comes to providing for its people, then the WHAT’S THE ECONOMY FOR, ANYWAY? conference is for you!

Dozens of prominent experts and activists will offers parts of the answer to the big question and offer out-of-the-box ideas about what we can do to make our economy serve us instead of vice-versa. Three tracks include FINDING HAPPINESS, SEEKING JUSTICE and SECURING SUSTAINABILITY.

Nearly 100 confirmed prominent speakers, including the following:
Gar Alperovitz, author of America After Capitalism
Dean Baker, author of The United States Since 1980
Peter Barnes, co-founder of Working Assets and author of Capitalism 3.0
Jared Bernstein, director of The Economic Policy Institute
Chuck Collins, founder, United for a Fair Economy
Ann Crittenden, author of The High Price of Motherhood
John de Graaf, National Coordinator of Take Back Your Time
Riane Eisler, author of The Real Wealth of Nations, The Chalice and the Blade
Nancy Folbre, feminist economist, author of The Invisible Heart
Kim Gandy, President of the National Organization for Women

Tim Kasser, psychologist, author of The High Price of Materialism
Karen Kornbluh, Policy Director for Senator Obama
Celinda Lake, Democratic pollster, author of What Women Really Want
James Lardner, editor of Inequality Matters

Eric Liu, former presidential speechwriter and domestic adviser for Bill Clinton
Hunter Lovins, co-author of Natural Capitalism
Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy, The End of Nature
David Moberg, Senior Editor, In These Times
Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet, Hope's Edge
Julie Nelson, author Economics for Humans
Karen Nussbaum, AFL-CIO, former director, Women's Bureau, US Dept. of Labor
Michael Petit, former Maine Commissioner of Human Services
Miles Rapoport, director, DEMOS

Jerome Ringo, President of Apollo Alliance
Vicki Robin, author of Your Money or Your Life
Joe Robinson, author of Work to Live:  The Guide to Getting a Life
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, co-author of The Motherhood Manifesto
Jim Rubens, former Republican State Senator, New Hampshire
Juliet Schor, author of The Overworked American, Born to Buy
Bill Spriggs, Chairman, Economics Department, Howard University

John Stauber, author of Trust Us, We're Experts, Weapons of Mass Deception
The conference offers 25 individual speeches and nearly 30 workshops.
To see the complete agenda, go to:

http://www.timeday.org/economyconference/agenda.asp

The conference offers nearly 30 workshops. Workshops will include in-depth analysis of current problems, comparisons to the economic performance of other industrial countries, and concrete policy solutions for a happier, healthier, most just and sustainable United States. Conference organizers hope that this conference will mark the beginning of a new national campaign to put the question, “What’s the economy for, anyway?” on the agenda of the 2008 election campaigns and beyond.

Whether you consider yourself an environmentalist, an advocate of social justice, family-friendly policies or universal health care, a union organizer or enlightened business leader, a practitioner of simple living, a student of economics, psychology or politics, a journalist or a wonk, a Democrat, Republican or Green, this conference is for you.

The “What’s the Economy for, Anyway?” project is a program of the Forum on Social Wealth. Financial support comes from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.