Video Episodes  

How to Unf★ck America - Dean Baker. 

The Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) Education Program has launched a new lecture series on "How to Unf★ck America" with Dean Baker [see the original INET video site or YouTube playlist] 

Dr. Dean Baker is an economist and author.  He co-founded of the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington DC in 1999.  He was previously a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).  Dr. Baker received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Baker is an expert on economic policy issues, and the author of several notable and influential books.  He has also written for a variety of professional and general audience publications. His work on economic policy is often cited in the media and he is frequently interviewed on television and radio. He has also testified several times before congressional committees.

Over the last four decades, the US economy has done quite well for the top 1%, but it has been largely stagnant for the great majority of Americans. This was not an accident, nor the natural workings of the market and certainly not an inevitability.  US policies have been deliberately structured since 1980 to redistribute income upwards.  The US system has been rigged to produce these economic results. 

In this six-part lecture series, this renowned scholar guides us on how public policy can be deployed to "unf*ck" the economic system, so it is no longer rigged to produce more inequality.  It is solution-oriented.  These are not exhaustive, but serve to illustrate how even small well-thought changes in public policy can help change trajectory dramatically.  It is just takes will, both intellectual and political, to recognize that the current situation is not insurmountable, and that change is achievable.  As Dr. Baker reminds us, if we want to, we can restructure markets differently to produce better results. 

Baker focuses on six areas that have been rigged over this period: (1) how patent and copyright monopolies have been strengthened to enable vast fortunes of tech billionaires and pharmaceutical companies; (2) how fiscal and monetary policy has been shifted to focus on budget deficits and fighting inflation rather than maintaining low unemployment, (3) how corporate structures have been weakened to allow massive pay increases for CEOs and executives, despite low shareholder returns;  (4) how the financial sector has been permitted to expand recklessly to generate vast fortunes at top, despite producing socially devastating crises,  (5) how trade deals have been negotiated to put downward pressure on low-wage workers, while protecting high-wage professionals; (6) how state and local protections, like regulations, minimum wages, social insurance and unions, have been undermined to weaken workers.

We have put together a set of online supplementary resources for those who wish to dig deeper into the references Dr. Baker makes in the lectures.  The links below, organized by video episode, go to resources currently available on the HET Website and elsewhere online.

These were collected with the assistance of Kurt Semm. 

 

  

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