Brother, Can You Spare A Trillion?
Lessons from the New Deal and Great Depression

CONFERENCE
Monday, June 1, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C.

With the economy in a deep recession and policymakers turning to massive government intervention in an attempt to create jobs and bolster the financial system "it feels like the 1930s all over again.  Today's new New Deal is rapidly unfolding, with the Obama administration and many lawmakers making it clear that any question of the success of FDR" New Deal policies was resolved long ago: government intervention worked, and history bears repeating.  

However, there are deep disagreements about the New Deal, and whether Roosevelt's policies deepened the depression and delayed recovery. 

Join us at the Cato Institute on June 1 to be a part of a highly informative half-day conference. Recognized national experts will discuss the economic and legal impact of the New Deal, and how its legacy is being used and misused to shape policy responses to current economic hardships. 


Confirmed speakers and the schedule follow. Additional speakers will be joining the Conference panels.


12:30 p.m. Registration
1:00 p.m. Opening Keynote Address



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Amity Shlaes, Author of the bestseller The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, Amity Shlaes is a syndicated columnist for Bloomberg and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She was formerly a columnist for the Financial Times and a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal.
1:45 p.m. The New Deal's Economic Legacy



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Harold Cole, Professor of Economics, University of Pennsylvania; consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia;  and author of numerous articles on the Great Depression for leading U.S. and international publications. 

Randall E. Parker, Professor of Economics, East Carolina University, and author of the books Reflections on the Great Depression and The Economics of the Great Depression: A Twenty-First Century Look Back at the Economics of the Interwar Era.

Price V. Fishback, Professor of Economics, University of Arizona. The author of numerous books and articles on economic history, he is currently involved in a long-term study of the political economy of Roosevelt's New Deal, including related spending and loans and their impact on local economies throughout the U.S.

Moderator: Sallie James, policy analyst, Cato Institute

3:15 p.m. The Constitutional Legacy of the New Deal



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Jeffrey Rosen, Professor of Law at The George Washington University and legal affairs editor of The New Republic.

David Schoenbrod, Trustee Professor of Law at New York Law School, and author of a number of books, including Saving Our Environment from Washington: How Congress Grabs Power, Shirks Responsibility, and Shortchanges the People.

Randy E. Barnett, Professor of Legal Theory, Georgetown University Law Center. The author of numerous books, including Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty, he lectures internationally and appears frequently on radio and television programs such as the CBS Evening News, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and Talk of the Nation.

Moderator: Gene Healy, vice president, Cato Institute, and author of Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power.

4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Closing Reception