Bard College’s Levy Economics Institute Launches New Capitol Hill Series in D.C. on November 19

WASHINGTON, D.C.—On November 19, the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College is launching its Capitol Hill Series, which will bring together financial experts, academics, and policymakers in Washington, D.C., to discuss the most pressing issues facing the economy. The inaugural session, “Rethinking the Federal Reserve’s Policy Framework and Independence,” aims to foster dialogue on critical economic issues among policymakers, congressional staffers, experts, and the public, featuring panels on whether the Fed’s current policy is framework sufficient for the challenges of today, whether it risks becoming impervious to necessary political oversight, and what form oversight should take to ensure both effective governance and democratic accountability.

Speakers include Pavlina R. Tcherneva, president of the Levy Economics Institute; Claudia Sahm, chief economist at New Century Advisors; James K. Galbraith, professor at the University of Texas at Austin; L. Randall Wray, professor at the Levy Economics Institute; and William Bergman, former economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. A Q&A period will follow, moderated by Claire Jones, US economics editor at the Financial Times.

The event will take place on Wednesday, November 19 from 1:30 – 3:30 pm at the Rayburn House Office Building (Room 2045) in Washington, D.C., followed by refreshments and appetizers. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required and space is limited. Learn more about the event and registration here.

SPEAKER SCHEDULE

Introduction | Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Levy Economics Institute

“Why Fed Independence Matters” | Claudia Sahm, New Century Advisors

“Congress and the Federal Reserve” | James K. Galbraith, University of Texas at Austin

“The Fed Is Still Flying Blind” | L. Randall Wray, Levy Economics Institute

“When Does ‘Independence’ Become Tyranny?” | William Bergman, Former Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

William Bergman is a semi-retired independent scholar with four decades of financial market and related educational experience, in private and public sector roles. From 1990 to 2004, he served as an economist and financial markets policy analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He earned an MBA (Finance) and an MA (Public Policy) from the University of Chicago in 1990.

James K. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin. He chairs the board of Economists for Peace and Security and directs the University of Texas Inequality Project. He was executive director of the Joint Economic Committee in the early 1980s. From 1993 to 1997, he served as chief technical adviser to China’s State Planning Commission for macroeconomic reform, and in the first half of 2015 as an informal counselor to the Greek minister of finance.

Claudia Sahm is the chief economist at New Century Advisors. She is a highly regarded expert on monetary and fiscal policy with many years of experience advising key decision-makers at the Federal Reserve, White House, and Congress. She developed the Sahm rule, a closely followed indicator of recessions. Sahm holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan (2007), and a bachelor’s degree in economics, political science, and German from Denison University (1998).

Pavlina R. Tcherneva is president of the Levy Economics Institute, a professor of economics at Bard College, and founding director of the Bard Economic Democracy Initiative. She specializes in modern money and public policy. Tcherneva’s book The Case for a Job Guarantee (Polity 2020) is a timely guide to the benefits of one of the most transformative public policies being discussed today, recognized by the Financial Times in 2020 and published in nine languages. Tcherneva has collaborated with experts from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the International Labor Organization, members of the European Parliament, as well as policy makers from the United States and abroad on designing and evaluating employment programs. She also worked with the Sanders 2016 Presidential campaign, and in 2020 she was invited to serve on the Biden-Harris economic policy volunteer committee, during their Presidential run.

L. Randall Wray is a professor of economics at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College and Emeritus Professor at University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is one of the developers of Modern Money Theory and his newest book on the topic is Understanding Modern Money Theory: Money and Credit in Capitalist Economies (Elgar). He is the 2022 Veblen-Commons Award winner for lifetime contributions to Institutionalist Thought. He has been a Fulbright Scholar to Italy (twice) and to Estonia, and a visiting professor at the Universities of Paris, Bologna, Bergamo, Rome, UNAM in Mexico City, UNICAMP in Brazil, Tallinn University in Estonia, Nankai University, China, and a visiting professor on a continuing basis at Masaryk University, Czech Republic. He was the Distinguished Visiting Professor at Willamette University, Oregon, in 2022-23.