PROGRAM

On April 16, 2011, the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College co-sponsored the 2011 Spring Economic Development Conference: Defining the New Economic Reality with the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network. The conference was part of Roosevelt House’s Financial Literacy Project, generously funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration, with support from U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

The conference provided the opportunity for students to engage in substantive policy discussions about the nation’s most pressing economic challenges. As we build a path to recovery from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, participants considered differing perspectives for placing the economy on a sustainable path. Policymakers and experts from academia, business and government provided a framework, within which students considered questions of fiscal responsibility and reform, financial regulation, financial literacy, and the role of the United States in emerging markets.

First Session- Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

Marshall Auerback, Roosevelt Institute (Moderator)

Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute

Howard Chernick, Hunter College

Second Session- Future of Banking and Financial Services

Mike Konczal, Roosevelt Institute (Moderator)

Stephen Lerner, Services Employees International Union

Lawrence J. White, New York University Stern School of Business

Third Session: Financial Literacy Program

Carol O’Rourke, Coalition for Debtor Education

Fourth Session: International Growth and Development

Anita Sonowane, Queens College (Discussant)

Michael Clemens, Center for Global Development

Student Presentations:

Nick Brown, “Budget for Millennial America”

Andrew Macklis and Helena Malchione, “Designing Policy for a Community Development Bank”

Joseph Shure, “An Economic Engine, Powered by Students”