After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward

Fall 2009-Spring 2010

In the aftermath of the credit meltdown that began in 2007, leaders and thinkers from wide-ranging vantage points — including Barack Obama, Benedict XVI and Richard Posner — have suggested that the crisis demonstrates the need to reassess basic assumptions of capitalist economic systems. For a surprising number of major thinkers, underlying assumptions about the rationality, reward mechanisms and distribution of benefits inherent in unregulated markets all have been called into question.

This series explores the lessons learned during the credit crisis and offers diverse perspectives on how to construct a new economy that is sustainable and just.

October 7, 2009
The Middle Class at Risk: The New Economic Security and What Can Be Done About It. Jacob Hacker, the Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University, reports on the broad-based risk-shift from society to individuals — across healthcare, pensions, and job security — as a result of philosophical pressure in the political arena, increased opportunity for private industry, and economic pressures.
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View the slides. (pdf)

October 15, 2009
Islamic Law, Shariah-based Finance, and Economic Theory. Caner Dagli is assistant professor in the Religious Studies department at Holy Cross. He was an interfaith affairs consultant at the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan, providing consultative support to HM King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and his special advisor HRH Ghazi bin Muhammad.
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October 19, 2009
The Challenge of Climate Change. William D. Nordhaus, Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, is one of the main economists working on climate change models. He recently chaired a panel of the National Academy of Sciences that produced a report, Nature's Numbers, recommending approaches to integrate environmental and other non-market activity into the national economic accounts.
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November 3, 2009
Recasting banks in 2009: An insider's view. David A. Spina '64, retired chairman and CEO of State Street Corporation, the world's leading provider of services to institutional investors, and a Holy Cross trustee, shares lessons learned from the collapse of the financial markets and changes that would improve the banking system.
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Due to a recording error, inaudible portions of the lecture have been edited out. Download the speaker's notes. (pdf)

November 12, 2009
How to Prevent the Next Great Depression: A Jewish Law Perspective. Aaron Levine, the Samson and Halina Bitensky Professor of Economics and chairman of the department at Yeshiva University, has focused his research on the interface between economics and Halakhah, or Jewish religious law, especially as it relates to public policy and modern business practices.
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November 17, 2009
Flourishing Economies: Supporting and deepening personal and public awareness. Daniel Barbezat, professor of economics at Amherst College, discusses behavioral economics and argues that a deepened awareness can reduce our wants and habits of consumption without compromising our personal well being.
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February 16, 2010
Values in Economic Life. Sr. Catherine Cowley, R.A., Ph.D., a former banker and now religious sister and associate director of the Institute for Religion, Ethics and Public Life at Heythrop College, University of London, speaks about the ethical value of money and achieving "the good life."
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February 25, 2010
Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. Ellen Ruppel Shell, professor of journalism and co-director of the Graduate Program in Science Journalism at Boston University, talks about her book Cheap and the history and psychology of our discount culture.
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March 11, 2010
Reforming Health Care in the U.S.: What Now? Jonathan Gruber is one of the Democratic party's most influential advisors on healthcare reform. He is director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a key architect of Massachusetts' health care reform, and professor of economics at MIT. More...
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Watch his talk on C-SPAN