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CALCULATOR,
calculate the ways we might
passionately engage the
dispassionate rote fury of bankers banking
on our disengaged
engagement
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What is an Econ Salon? Economists, poets and other citizens in Portland, Oregon, have launched Econ Salons to gather and learn about the economic crisis and to discuss a progressive solution. We are building the Portland Papers to voice demands for a just economy. The financial world is full of obfuscation and specialization that disempower most of us. If we leave decisions about the economy to the most powerful, the most powerful will be served. We are all capable of engaging the economic complexities if we come together. Our salons center on discussions with economists and also celebrate other forms of knowledge, including the poetic. Urgent times demand "spending" our Saturday nights discussing economics--albeit with joy and revelry! Are you interested in organizing a salon? Please email Kaia Sand at sand@thetangentpress.org. |
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| past Econ
Salons Fri. Jan. 16, 2009, 7 - 9 PM Buchan Building at the First Unitarian Church, SW 12th between Salmon and Main St. an Alliance for Democracy & Economic Justice Action Group of the First Unitarian Church event with economists Robin Hahnel & Kristen Sheeran & a short opening poetry reading (regarding the financial crisis) by Jules Boykoff Approximately 70 people in attendance Sat. Nov. 1, 2008 at 6 PM Clinton Corner Café, 2633 SE 21st Avenue (@ Clinton) with economists Robin Hahnel & Kristen Sheeran & a short opening poetry reading (regarding the financial crisis) by Jules Boykoff Approximately 45 people in attendance We have considered some of these questions: Is New Deal 2.0 possible? A New Green Deal? Our media swells with confusion regarding the financial crisis. What caused it? Who is responsible? What lessons are to be learned? What do we make of the financial bailout? Must it be "socialize loss and privatize gain?" How can we aid Main Street instead of Wall Street? Which initiatives should we oppose and which should we support? Free market ideologues continue to shamelessly spread their false interpretations and false solutions -- non-intervention in management of banks we bailout, re-privatization ASAP, more de-regulation, more outsourcing, and more "free-trade." But even the mainstream media now asks if this is the end of free market capitalism. How can we seize the opportunity presented by the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and replace the failed economics of competition and greed with a new economics of equitable cooperation? |
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future Econ Salons Econ Salons are opportunities for people to gather and talk about solutions to the economic crisis, but the salons themselves can change according to the settings and people who have gathered. So far, we have hosted one salon at the Clinton Corner Cafe, a cafe/bistro/bar, and one in tbe basement at the First Unitarian Church. Are you interested in hosting an Econ Salon? If you would like to collaborate, please email Kaia Sand (sand@thetangentpress.org). Or if you would simply like to update us on an salon you design & host, email & describe your event. |
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| Town Hall on
the Economic Crisis First Unitarian Church, SW 12th and Main Saturday, January 31, 1-5 pm Delicious food and reception to follow (Doors open at 12:30 pm) Donations welcome Sponsored by Alliance for Democracy, Jobs with Justice, the Economic Justice Action Group of the First Unitarian Church, and over 45 unions, community organizations,churches, and other groups. Keynote speakers are Marty Hart-Landsberg from the economics dept at Lewis and Clark College and Veronica Dujun from the sociology dept at Portland State University. While almost $2.5 trillion of our money was squandered on easy term loans to banks and investment houses, we lost 2.6 million jobs in 2008! One million jobs were lost just between Nov. 1st and Dec. 31st of 2008. With a good deal more suffering likely, we are in the most difficult economic times since the Great Depression. * What are the root causes of the economic crisis? * What should we fight for? What is a "recovery?" * How do the millions of people who voted for change help make it happen? Economists, labor leaders, and community leaders, experts in their fields will share their perspectives on these questions. We will have workshops and conversations about winning back the right to organize; the role of the labor movement; the kind of health care reform we need; creating a green economy; staying united; building a thriving local sustainable economy; and more. It's time for a change. Don't miss this event! Bring friends and family. Doors open at 12:30 pm. Be sure to get a seat. Please bring non-perishable food items for the Oregon Food Bank. |
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| further
reading Center for Economic Policy Research Economic Policy institute Economics for Equity and the Environment "A Better Bailout" by Joseph Stiglitz Columns by Paul Krugman ROBIN HAHNEL has just returned from Dublin, Ireland, where he argued for alternatives to free-market capitalism before the University Philosophical Society at Trinity College, University of Dublin. Earlier this fall, Hahnel spoke at the "Local Alternatives to Confront the Crisis of Capitalism" conference in Lara, Venezuela. In the last month, he has discussed the financial crisis on many media outlets, including Al Jazeera, and RTÉ (Irish public radio), as well as locally on the KPOJ Morning Show. Hahnel is author of Panic Rules, which analyzes crises brought on by financial liberalization in the era of globalization. Other books include Economic Justice and Democracy, The ABC's of Political Economy, and The Political Economy of Participatory Economics (co-authored with Michael Albert). Hahnel is Professor Emeritus of Economics at American University in Washington DC and Visiting Professor at Portland State University. KRISTEN SHEERAN argues that, far from being ideologically neutral, mainstream economics has become a barrier to thinking about how to promote an equitable and sustainable economy. Sheeran is co-author of a forthcoming book, Saving Kyoto (with Graciela Chichilnisky), about solutions to the climate crisis written for a mainstream audience.She is a cutting-edge thinker about economics and the environment and widely published in academic journals. Sheeran is the executive director of Economics for Equity and the Environment at EcoTrust and Associate Professor of Economics at St. Mary's College, University of Maryland. JULES BOYKOFF doesn't shy from addressing economics in his poetry, as evidenced by the title of his first book of poetry, Once Upon a Neoliberal Rocket Badge. His second book of poetry, Hegemonic Love Potion, is forthcoming in 2009 from Factory School. Also a political scientist, Boykoff is the author of Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States, The Suppression of Dissent: How the State and Mass Media Squelch USAmerican Social Movements, and Landscapes of Dissent: Guerrilla Poetry & Public Space (co-authored with Kaia Sand). Boykoff has been skeptical of the cult of Alan Greenspan for years, and he will read from his poem, "Das Greenspan, Volume I - III." Boykoff is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Pacific University. |