EH.N: ANN: Reminder: The Revival of Political Economy Conference

[Fadhel Kaboub]

The Department of Economics at Drew University Presents

The Revival of Political Economy
An all-day conference with distinguished scholars in Political Economy

Saturday February 9, 2008
9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Hall of Sciences, HS 4
Drew University, 36 Madison Ave., Madison, NJ 
07940 Conference Schedule: 
http://depts.drew.edu/econ/RPE/

Nancy Folbre, author of The Invisible Heart: 
Economics and Family Values (2001), and Professor 
of Economics at the University of Massachusetts 
at Amherst, presents "You Go, Girls! Feminism and 
Political Economy." The presentation explores the 
intellectual history of feminism and economics, 
reviewing classic debates between liberal and 
socialist feminists and emphasizing their 
relevance to the current day. Dr. Folbre will 
provide an overview of feminist economics today 
with an emphasis on the discourse of "care" and 
growing empirical research on the "care sector" 
of the economy.

James K. Galbraith, author of Created Unequal 
(1998), Professor of Economics at the University 
of Texas at Austin, and Senior Scholar at the 
Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, 
presents "The Political-Economy of U.S.-China 
Relations" in which he examines the mutual 
interdependence that now exists between the U.S. 
and China, the peculiar - even unique - 
characteristics of Chinaís economic expansion, 
the implications of Chinaís rise for the 
development strategies of other countries, 
especially in Latin America, and the consequences 
of Chinaís financial boom for its economic 
statistics, many of which including the trade 
surplus are distorted and misunderstood as a 
result.

Michael Hudson, author of Super Imperialism (1972 
and 2003), Distinguished Research Professor of 
Economics at the University of Missouri - Kansas 
City (UMKC), and President of the Institute for 
the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), 
presents "The U.S. and Global Bubble Economy" in 
which he explains the essence of the increasingly 
financialized Bubble Economies and their impact 
on the global payments system. Dr. Hudson argues 
that the United States enjoys an international 
free ride by virtue of the dollar hegemony as key 
currency in international payments, thus allowing 
the U.S. to run up debts without international 
constraint. Dr. Hudson challenges the claim that 
U.S. consumer demand is the "engine" that drives 
world economic growth; a claim that is used as a 
threat to foreign central banks who are forced to 
relend their inflow of surplus dollars to the 
U.S. Treasury, otherwise their currencies will 
rise, reducing their competitive position 
vis-à-vis dollar-area exporters. Foreign 
economies therefore have held down their exchange 
rates by keeping their own interest rates low, 
spurring financial and real estate bubbles of 
their own. Dr. Hudson concludes that for the 
global economy, dollar hegemony has become a form 
of international economic overhead.

Jan Kregel, Senior Scholar at the Levy Economics 
Institute of Bard College, and Distinguished 
Research Professor at the Center for Full 
Employment and Price Stability (UMKC), presents 
"Savings Gaps, External Resources and Debt Crises 
in Latin America: Towards a New Model of 
Development in Latin America."  Dr.Kregel 
questions the traditional development theory 
which identifies the obstacles to development in 
the lack of domestic resources and domestic 
savings in developing countries. It thus supports 
reliance on external resources in the form of 
official assistance and foreign borrowing. Latin 
America has followed this model and the result 
has been a series of increasingly devastating 
debt crises. In the 2005 Global Summit Outcome, 
the UN shifted emphasis to give greater weight to 
domestic employment policy - one of the most 
underutilized domestic resources in developing 
countries. After the 2001 crisis, Argentina has 
initiated a new approach based on producing 
domestic growth before it attempts to return to 
borrowing in international capital markets. Do 
these changes in emphasis represent the basis for 
a New Model of Latin American development?

This event is free and open to the public, and is 
co-sponsored by the Economics Department, the 
Economics Club, and The Presidential Initiative 
Fund of Drew University.

For more info please contact Dr. Fadhel Kaboub, 973-408-3764, fkaboub at drew.edu

________________________

Fadhel Kaboub, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Economics
Director, Wall Street Semester Program
Drew University
36 Madison Avenue
Madison, NJ 07940

Tel: 973-408-3764
Fax: 973-408-3142
Email: fkaboub at drew.edu
website: http://www.kaboub.com/