News

  • The Center on Capitalism and Society is delighted to announce that Mark C. Taylor has joined the Center as its newest Member. He is Chairman and Professor in the Department of Religion at Columbia University and Co-Director of Columbia’s Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life, as well as Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Union Theological Seminary and the Cluett Professor of Humanities, emeritus, at Williams College. Professor Taylor has written more than two dozen books on topics ranging from philosophy to architecture to economics. His complete CV can be found here. 

  • New Huadu Business School, SwissCam Zurich and the University of Zurich celebrated the launch of their Global Executive MBA program with events in Beijing (March 20, 2013) and Zurich (April 12, 2013).

    Zurich:




    Beijing:



     
  • The Center on Capitalism and Society and New Huadu Business School co-organized a two-day conference (March 18-19) entitled "The Next Decade: Mode and Innovation," in order to explore the future of the Chinese economy. Among those attending the event in Beijing were Center members Edmund Phelps, Amar Bhidé, and Glenn Hubbard, 2012 Nobel Laureate Alvin Roth, Minister Edmond Alphandéry of France, Justin Lin, and Professors Jianguo Wang and Zhyi He of New Huadu Business School.

  • Center Member Amar Bhidé contributed commentary on bank restructuring to Christine Banks's essay, "Too Big to Fail Rules Hurting Too Small to Compete Banks," in Bloomberg Businessweek.


  • Today, February 25th, The New York Times in its online Opinionator section ran an essay, "Less Innovation, More Inequality," by Edmund Phelps, Director of the Center. 
     
  • Center Director Edmund Phelps interviewed by Caroline Baum for Bloomberg View on the failings of rational expectations models, here.
     
  • Center Director Edmund Phelps and his ideas on corporatism among other Columbia University Economists was discussed in this article from The Globe and Mail, here.
     
  • The Center's 10th Annual Conference is Friday, December 7th. Download the agenda here.
     
  • The Center is pleased to announce the addition of Mr. Chen Fashu to its Advisory Board. Mr. Chen is the founder and Chairman of the New Huadu Industrial Group and the New Huadu Foundation. For more information on the New Huadu Business School, based in Shanghai, Fuzhou, and Beijing, please visit: nbs.org.cn/en
     
  • Edmund Phelps gave the 5th annual Phelps Medal for Innovation to an Argentine company, Rizobacter, during a ceremony at the Catedra Phelps conference at the University of Buenos Aires on August 6, 2012.

     
  • Center Director Edmund Phelps was interviewed on the Israel National News program "Goldstein on Gelt", released August 14, 2012. Phelps shares his predictions for the future of Western economies. The full interview can be listened to here. 
     
  • Edmund Phelps discusses his ideas and the supporting data about the stagnation and eventual crisis in Greece, Italy and, to the lesser extent, France in an Op-Ed appearing in the Financial Times this morning, July 20, 2012.  Please click here to see the piece at the Financial Times online. 
  • The Center is pleased to announce Philippe Aghion as the newest Foreign Member. Aghion is Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics at Harvard University, Program Director in Industrial Organization at CEPR, and Fellow at NBER and IFS. His complete CV can be found here. 
     
  • On June 17, The New York Review of Books posted the recent panel discussion involving Center Member Jeffrey Sachs, and Center Director Edmund Phelps on their website. Paul Krugman and George Soros were also on the panel, charged with discussing the debt crisis in Greece and its far reaching economic effects. The full discussion can be viewed here.
     
  • Center Director Edmund Phelps was interviewed by  CCTV for a half hour on a widely watched weekly television program "Dialogue" on the Chinese economy. This was released on June 17 in Beijing. Click here to see the full interview.

     
  • Center member Amar Bhidé talks about JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. He spoke on June 13 on Bloomberg Television's "Inside Track". Click here to see the full interview. 

 

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    • June 3, 2012
    Center Director Edmunds Phelps chats with Dean and Professor Yingyi Qian at Chen Daisun Memorial Lecture at Tsinghua University.
    Beijing, China
    June 3, 2012
    Professor Chong-En Bai and Edmund Phelps in front of the statue of Chen Daisum at Tsinghua University. 
    Beijing, China
    June 3, 2012
    Edmund Phelps at at Chen Daisun Memorial Lecture at Tsinghua University.
    Beijing, China

    June 2, 2012
    Edmund Phelps with fellow Nobel laureates Ed Prescott and Sir James Mirrlees.
    Nanjing, China
    June 2, 2012
    Edmund Phelps with government officials at the celebration of Southeast University.
    Nanjing, China

    June 2, 2012
    Edmund Phelps giving his lecture at the Nobel Lecture on the 110th Anniversary of Southeast University.
    Nanjing, China

 

  • Center Foreign Member Sheila Dow has a new book published by Palgrave Macmillan, Foundations for New Economic Thinking.   Please follow the link for more information
     
  • Edmund Phelps, the Center's Director, Steve Case, chief executive officer of Revolution LLC and co-founder of AOL Inc.,  and Carly Fiorina, chairman of Carly Fiorina Enterprises participated in a panel discussion about job creation. Susan Goldberg moderates the panel at the Bloomberg Link Washington Summit which took place on May 1. Click to see the the video of the panel at Bloomberg.

     
  • Center Member Amar Bhidé talks about JPMorgan's $2 billion loss and Jamie Dimon's leadership. He spoke May 14 on Bloomberg Television's "Inside Track."  Click here to see the the full interview with Bloomberg.





  • Movie Night at the Center: Justin Szlasa, in town for the Tribeca Film Festival, gave us a private screening of his new documentary, Side By Side. Co-produced with Keanu Reaves, the movie chronicles the innovation that entrepreneurs like George Lucas and Jim Jannard (the founder of Oakley and also Red Digital Cinema) brought to the field of motion picture production and distribution.


    (Left to right: Merritt Fox, Edmund Phelps and Justin Szlasa)

     
  • The position of Executive Assistant to the Center's Director, Edmund Phelps, has now been taken by Jeff Nagy. He comes to the position from Harvard College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, among his several other activities. Francesca Mari, who held the position for 2 years, is moving to Austin to become one of the editors of the magazine Texas Monthly. Francesca is very dear to us at the Center and will be sorely missed.

     
  • In a May 8th article in the Wall Street Journal, Center Member Amar Bhidé discusses how the common currency is doing its job just fine even though the sovereign over-indebtedness and banking solvency are serious problems for Europe.  Click to read the entirety of "In Praise of the Beleaguered Euro".

     
  • Center Foreign Member Gylfi Zoega and Center Director Edmund Phelps give their paper on the occasion of the Festschrift for Prof. Thrainn Eggertsson at the University of Iceland on April 17, 2012.


     
  • In an April 4 article, Center Director Edmund Phelps speaks with CNN's Annalyn Censky on America's Job Crisis in "Unemployment rate: How low can it go?"  Click here to see the full article on CNNMoney.

     
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    • April 3, 2012
    Panel on Soft Landings.
    Boao Forum
    Boao, China

    		 April 2, 2012
    Panel on Employment and Growth.
    Boao Forum
    Boao, China
     

    April 5, 2012
    Edmund Phelps, Director of the Center, met with the leaders of the Z-Park for Start-Up and Hi-Tech Companies - China's Silicon Valley.
    Beijing, China

     

 

  • Center Director Edmund Phelps talks with Stephen Engle on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move Asia" from the Boao Forum for Asia in southern China’s Hainan province. Phelps talks about the outlook for the U.S. economy and also discusses Europe's debt crisis and China's economic growth.  Click here to see the the full interview with Bloomberg.


     
  • In an April 3 article in China Daily Center Director Edmund Phelps and the governor of China's central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, are quoted responding to comments on the effect of the US's policies on the emerging economies in the world.  Click here to see the full article in China Daily.


     
  • Panel Discussion: "Global Economy: Crisis Without End" with George Soros, Paul Krugman, Jeffrey Sachs, Edmund Phelps, and Robert Silvers.  Link to more information.

    Future Airings on C-Span3:
    Saturday, March 17th at 11pm (ET)
    Sunday, March 18th at 9am (ET)
    Sunday, March 18th at 4pm (ET)

     
  • The Rizobacter Company, manufacturer of inoculants, fertilizers and micronutrients, was awarded the Phelps Medal of Innovation for its contributions to the improvement of agricultural production and environmental protection.  Click here to read the full article, 'Distinción a una empresa del agro' from La Nacion published on March 1.
     
  • In a February 18 article at L'Echo, Center Member Roman Frydman is featured as "L'homme qui veut révolutionner l'économie."  Click here to read the the full interview from L'Echo.
     
  • In a February 2 interview with Keiser Report, Center Foreign Member, Saifedean Ammous, talks with hosts Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert about the standoff between Egypt and the IMF debt pushers as well as the war against the online free market by Hollywood middlemen.  Click here for video of the interview.
     
  • In a January 31 op-ed at Project Syndicate, Center Director Edmund Phelps and Center Foreign Member Saifedean Ammous discuss what the future holds for capitalism and how the system that is now in crisis is not capitalism, but corporatism, which chokes off the dynamism that makes for engaging work, faster economic growth, and greater opportunity and inclusiveness.  Click here to read 'Blaming Capitalism for Corporatism'.
     
  • The Global Economy in Crisis: From Europe to Beijing to Washington, Can the World’s Economic System Cope?
    Friday, February 17th , 6:00 pm
    The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium


    A panel discussion co-sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York review of Books, and the Fritt Ord Foundation of Oslo.  Introduced by Thomas P. Campbell, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

    Paul Krugman*, Edmund Phelps*, Jeffrey D. Sachs and George Soros.  Chair: Robert Silvers.  (*Winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics)

     
  • A structural perspective on the excesses in some of the peripheral economies of the eurozone is offered in the January 12 op-ed in the Financial Times written by Edmund Phelps, the Center's Director.  "What must be done," the essay asks. "Italy, Portugal and Greece must do without cheap borrowing and introduce a wealth tax."  He appeared on CNBC's Squawk on the Street the next day to discuss the ideas there.  Link to the video and article.  
     
  • Edmund Phelps, the Center's Director, was elected to be a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences on December 22, 2011.  The Academy was founded by Peter the Great in 1724. The ceremony is expected to take place in March or April.  Link to the full roster of foreign members.
     
  • Center Member Amar Bhidé has written an op-ed in the NY Times of January 4, under the title 'Bring back boring banks', which presents his views on the necessary restructuring of commercial banks.
     
  • In a wide-ranging interview, which appears in December 16's Deutsche Welle, Center Director Edmund Phelps discusses probing present-day problems in economic governance and policy.  Please follow the link for Michael Knigge's piece, 'Alliance between banks and governments at the heart of eurozone crisis.'
     
  • In his weekly column in the Financial Times today, December 7, 2011, John Kay, a Foreign Member of the Center, discusses the isolation from the world that caused today’s conventional economics to fail to understand the recent collapses in some of the most modern economies.  Please follow the link for Kay's piece, 'Horses for courses: picking the right market model.'
     
  • In the New York Times of Saturday, November 26, Robert Shiller, a Member of the Center, argued for the adoption of subsidies to companies for their employment of low-wage workers – an idea that goes back to the 1997 book Rewarding Work by Edmund Phelps, the Center’s Director.  Please follow the link for Shiller's piece, 'The fire bell of unemployment.'
     
  • The Center on Capitalism and Society is delighted at the news that Beyond Mechanical Markets (Princeton University Press) by Roman Frydman and Michael Goldberg has been chosen by Martin Wolf of the Financial Times as his non-fiction favorite for 2011. Roman, a founding member of the Center on Capitalism and Society, has been a driving force in the Center's program to rewrite the economics of modern capitalist economies.  Please follow the link for the FT’s list of Books of the Year that includes Beyond Mechanical Markets.
     
  • On November 22, Center Director Edmund Phelps was the speaker at the NY Meetings Forum of the Council on Foreign Relations at the Harold Pratt House.  His subject was the misdiagnoses by Keynesians and supply-siders of the present slump of the US economy and consequently the failure of the policy proposals under discussion to be grounded in inadequate economic theory.  For a link to True and False Lessons Drawn from the Structural Slump (Audio), please click here.
     
  • On November 13, Center Director Edmund Phelps spoke at the Huatuo CEO Forum in Shanghai.  Former President Bill Clinton, Mr. Yan Jiehe, Chairman of China Pacific Construction Group, and Prime Minister John Howard also spoke at the conference.

      

     
  • On November 8, Center Director Edmund Phelps and Center Advisory Board Member Harold Evans participated in Reuters' Keynes vs. Hayek: An Economics Debate.  "Was John Maynard Keynes correct, can government fix the mass unemployment generated by a financial slump? Or is that a dangerous delusion as argued by his arch critic, Friedrich von Hayek?"  For the video of the debate and to participate in the Keynes vs. Hayek poll by Reuters, please click here.  For a copy of Professor Phelps's statement, please click here.

    (Update on Nov 11: The voting at the Reuters site is running 67% for Hayek and 33% for Keynes.)