Schedule

Thursday, June 8th


1:00pm - 2:00pm ET

Registration and COVID testing


2:00pm - 3:20pm ET

Welcome and Opening Plenary

Panel: A Generational Opportunity to Eradicate Austerity

Shaped and scarred by the failures of neoliberalism, young people are leading the charge for an economy that prioritizes people, communities, and economic well-being. This offers the progressive movement a seminal opportunity to finally put neoliberal messages to bed. We must embrace this political imperative and champion bold, sustained public investment for a better future.

This panel won’t feature the same old dusty polling memos on the economy. We’ll spotlight the young leaders and experts who can help us to understand how the most diverse generations our country have ever seen are driving new economic narratives and how we can align with those efforts to catalyze even greater impact. Igor Volsky , Melissa Morales , Roshni Nedungadi , Alexandra Rojas , Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez


3:20pm - 3:40pm ET

Break


3:40pm - 5:00pm ET

Plenary Two

Panel: The Progressive Economic Future Is Fueled by Public Power

The verdict is in: markets alone won’t deliver the prosperity we need for a healthy and secure economy. If we want to advance the well-being of workers, families, and communities, we will need federal investments, publicly-provided services, and a robust public sector. Our panel of experts will share the transformational opportunities facing progressives if we can harness the potential of government to expand public power for greater inclusion and economic well-being.

From public banking to city-wide solar to social housing and a public option for insulin, panelists will cover some of the most promising new examples of using public power to deliver the healthy economy that markets won’t. They will also share lessons practitioners can take into their own fights for a more inclusive economy.
Dorian Warren , Jamila Headley , Tara Raghuveer , Paul Williams


5:00pm - 7:00pm ET

Reception



Friday, June 9th


8:30am - 9:30am ET

Registration, COVID testing (ongoing), and Breakfast


9:40am - 11:00am ET

Plenary Three

Panel: Securing an Economy that Works for Us through Successful Implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act

In its first two years, the Biden Administration delivered hallmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and huge investments in health care, manufacturing, physical infrastructure, and climate. But these investments will only transform our economy if they are successfully and equitably implemented. We must leverage federal dollars to achieve economic prosperity for workers and families across the country.

This panel will feature current and former Biden Administration officials who have had a hand in crafting and implementing these very policies. They will give us an inside view into how we can secure the benefits of these policies for decades to come to ensure they transform our economy so that it truly works for everyone. Olugbenga Ajilore , Sameera Fazili , Joelle Gamble , Noah Kaufman , Ganesh Sitaraman


11:00am - 11:20am ET

Break and Transition


11:20am - 12:30pm ET

Breakout Block

A Tale of Two Recessions: What the Great Recession and COVID Recession Teach Us About Public Investment in Good Times and Bad

Robust public investment isn’t only how we respond to a crisis; it’s also how we help prevent it. In spite of overwhelming evidence that a more robust, people-centered approach to pandemic relief kept families and our economy afloat and catalyzed an historic economic recovery, this successful strategy is under attack. Conservative policymakers want to return to the pre-pandemic status quo and hobble our government’s ability to respond to future crises.

In this panel, experts will examine the disparate policy responses to the Great Recession and COVID Recession and the divergent outcomes those responses produced. They will also discuss how to ensure we apply the right lessons going forward to prevent a repeat of the mistakes of the Great Recession all over again. Bryce Covert , Jhumpa Bhattacharya , Jessica Fulton , Mike Konzcal

What’s Beyond Neoliberalism? Effectively Communicating a Progressive Economic Worldview

From the false promise of "free" markets to the danger of relying on the stock market as a barometer for the health of our economy, too many neoliberal myths still have a grip on the public, the media, and our policymakers. In the wake of the economic and social upheaval caused by the pandemic, progressives have a unique opportunity to shift how people understand and think about our economy and generate more support for progressive economic policies along the way.

This panel will feature experts fighting to advance a progressive economic vision and overcome a legacy of underinvestment, corporate concentration, and marginalization of everyday people, especially workers and families of color. Panelists will share how they’ve advanced progressive economic victories by applying three core priorities in their work: reining in private power, building public power, and centering the workers and families that have been locked out of abundance for far too long. Abigail Stahl , Nabil Ahmed , Angela Hanks , Andrea Serrano

Fighting Deregulation to Secure a Stronger, Healthier Economy

Our government has deregulated almost everything over the last few decades – and it shows. We are living with the extraordinary consequences of deregulation, from train derailments that have endangered the health and safety of our communities to banking deregulation that has dragged us closer to a global financial crisis.

This panel of experts will walk us through these timely examples of how deregulation has gutted protections for workers and consumers and left people and our economy vulnerable to crisis and instability. They’ll also share which lessons progressives must take from recent failures and offer a roadmap for fighting back against further deregulation and a path forward to reversing decades of damaging policy. David Dayen , Alex Beckmann , Andrea Flynn , Renita Marcellin , K. Sabeel Rahman


12:30pm - 1:30pm ET

Lunch

Book Talk with Professor Simon Johnson

In Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, Professor Simon Johnson and his MIT colleague, Professor Daron Acemoglu, survey one-thousand years of progress and conclude that technology has, in most eras, been used by the rich and influential to further enrich themselves and consolidate their power over society. They also believe, however, that it doesn’t have to be this way. Progress depends on the choices we make about technology. Today, we can either allow critical decisions about the future of emerging technologies—and the economic prosperity they will create—to remain in the hands of a few hubristic tech leaders, or we can harness those technologies to become the foundation for widespread prosperity.


1:40pm - 2:50pm ET

Breakout Block

Reimagining a Federal Reserve that Works for Workers

The Federal Reserve is entrusted with two important functions to ensure our economic well- being: managing price stability and achieving full employment. Despite this dual mandate, the Fed has failed for years to achieve full employment and has tolerated higher unemployment rates for Black and brown workers. The Fed’s priorities became even clearer this past spring as it continued to hammer away at the labor market with further rate hikes while swooping in to protect wealthy venture capitalists.

In this panel, experts will discuss how the Fed's approach to price stability could jeopardize the incredible gains workers have made in the labor market over the course of this recovery and offer reforms to ensure that our monetary policy works for workers, especially those who have been left behind time and time again. Talmon Smith , Rakeen Mabud , JW Mason , David Stein

Success Stories in Economic Narrative Change

While progressive economic policies are incredibly popular, progressives have struggled to place those policies within a broader narrative framework that supplants long-dominant neoliberal narratives. It’s no surprise then that narrative change on the economy has become a core priority across the progressive ecosystem. Experts who have successfully changed narratives about different facets of our economy will share case studies from their successes and lessons we can apply across the progressive movement to catalyze change. Akira Nakahara , Nidhi Hegde , Amanda Janoo , Alexis Krieg , Lindsay Owens

Investing in Forgotten Places and People

In his State of the Union address, President Biden spoke of the need to invest “in places and people that have been forgotten” and said “too many people have been left behind and treated like they’re invisible.” This session will make visible some of the people and places who have been left behind as well as detail some of the investments needed to ensure all communities share in our country’s prosperity. Experts will discuss specific interventions, like infrastructure and climate investments, restarting the Civilian Conservation Corps, and subsidized employment, which can shape a more inclusive economy for communities too often left out of prosperity.
Algernon Austin , Anthony Baber , Ted Boettner , Valerie Wilson , Melissa Young


2:50pm - 3:10pm ET

Break and Transition


3:10pm - 4:30pm ET

Closing Plenary

Panel: Winning the Economy We Deserve with Tax Policy

The upcoming expiration of key provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) will thrust tax policy back to the center of economic policy debates in Washington. Progressives have a golden opportunity to make further progress on our shared goal of building a tax code that strengthens our economy and our democracy – but only if we play our cards right. Otherwise, we risk losing critical ground as special interests and megacorporations deploy armies of lobbyists to protect the rigged status quo.

This panel of experts will show that the upcoming fights are politically beneficial: the overwhelming majority of people agree that we must make the ultra-wealthy and megacorporations pay their fair share. They will show how winning the upcoming tax fights is critical to defeating the outdated trickle-down model of taxes that has too often favored wealthy interests over the investments we need for a healthy economy and society.
Dorothy Brown , Kamolika Das , Chye-Ching Huang , Dylan Matthews , Vanessa Williamson