Audio Recording

Panelists:
•    Peter Gosselin, national economics correspondent, Los Angeles Times; author, High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families
•    Julia I. Lane, NORC, University of Chicago; coauthor, Economic Turbulence: Is a Volatile Economy Good for America?
•    Austin Nichols, research associate, Income and Benefits Policy Center, Urban Institute
•    William A. Niskanen, chairman, Cato Institute
•    Crag Torres, economics reporter, Bloomberg News (moderator)

For most of the last generation, economists, policymakers, and journalists trained their sights on a U.S. economy that had recovered from the stagflation of the 1970s and deep recession of the early 1980s to produce sustained, if unevenly distributed, prosperity. But in the last year, prosperity has given way to something that looks much like recession and, worse yet, to the sort of intertwined problems of inflation, stagnating growth, and financial market fragility reminiscent of the 1970s. To date, most explanations for what’s gone wrong have focused on a set of exotic financial schemes, the bursting of a housing bubble, and imbalances in trade and the government budget.

But is the current downturn simply the half-empty portion of a routine business cycle? Or were the economic rewards of the past quarter-century purchased at a cost of little-noticed, but very real, additional risks for American working families—risks that make today’s economic and financial troubles more dangerous than usual for wage earners? Even with the current troubles, are you better off than you were 10, 20, or 30 years ago, or not?

Panel members span the spectrum of opinion both about the economy’s current condition and the nature of the growth of the past generation. The result will be a lively discussion about where America now finds itself economically and where it’s likely headed.

Resources

- Bios
- Peter Gosselin handout
- Austin Nichols handout
- Julia Lane handout
- Trends in Income Volatility and Risk: 1970-2004

At the Urban Institute
2100 M Street N.W., 5th Floor, Washington, D.C.

Lunch will be provided at 11:45 a.m. The forum begins promptly at noon.