Below you can find resource information on speakers from the 2005 Inventive Views Lecture Series, sponsored by the Partnership for Strong Communities and Connecticut Voices for Children.  The series featured scholars and practitioners whose work focuses on the intersection of people, policy and the economy, and explored how the bumps in the road to individual and community success can be smoothed.  The page includes video of each speaker, links to articles, interviews, and book reviews.

• February 10th - David Shipler, Author of The Working Poor
• February 22nd - Robert Tannenwald, Director, New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve of Boston
• March 30th - Barry Nalebuff, Author of Why Not?: How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small
• May 5th - Pari Sabety, Director, Urban Markets Initiative - Brookings Institution, Metropolitan Policy Program
• June 1st - Doug Foy, Massachusetts Secretary of Commonwealth Development

 

February 10 David Shipler Author of The Working Poor

Based on in-depth interviews over the course of ten years, Shipler’s The Working Poor takes a personalized, human look at poverty. He explores the economic, sociological, and psychological toll it takes on low-wage workers and how businesses may benefit from getting involved. Conservative leaders often blame an unskilled workforce for their poor performance in the global market, while liberal groups complain that low-wage workers are not adequately supported by the job market. In this seminal take on poverty today, David Shipler breaks down partisan thinking on poverty and offers concrete solutions

Shipler worked for the New York Times from 1966 to 1988, reporting from New York, Saigon, Moscow, and Jerusalem before serving as chief diplomatic correspondent in Washington, DC. He has also written for The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of three other books – Russia: Broken Idols, Stolen Dreams; the Pulitzer Prize-winning Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land; and A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America.

Event Handouts

• Economics and Demographics in Connecticut.   Powerpoint presentation by Partnership for Strong Communities.
• Pay Raises? Not Much On The Plate.   Chicago Tribune article on declining hourly wages (as reprinted in Hartford Courant)
• State of Working Connecticut 2004.  Report by CT Voices for Children.

Video

• DSL/Cable or Dial-up (Windows Media)

Additional resource materials

• A detailed biography 
• Interview on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer (transcript and streaming video) 
• Additional interviews with Shipler on The Myth of the American Dream and The Cycle of Poverty  
• Reviews of his book The Working Poor
• Read an excerpt of The Working Poor
• Q&A with Shipler
• Booksellers that sell The Working Poor
• CT Voices for Children reports on Family Economic Security

Back to top

February 22 Robert Tannenwald Director, New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve of Boston

Robert Tannenwald is Assistant Vice President and Director of the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He specializes in state and local public finance. He has been with the Bank since 1981.

Mr. Tannenwald has published extensively in the field of public finance. His research includes topics such as devolution, unemployment insurance, the business tax climate, and the impacts of state and local tax policies. He publishes a newsletter, Fiscal Facts, on the fiscal condition of the New England states. He is second Vice President of the National Tax Association and a member of the Board of Directors of the New England Economic Partnership.

Event Handouts

• Devolution and the States: An Economist's Perspective.   Presentation by Robert Tannenwald.

Video

• DSL/Cable or Dial-up (Windows Media)

Additional resource materials

• Biography with links to articles 
• Heat and Light in the Business Tax Policy Debate. PowerPoint presentation, April 2004
• Are State and Local Revenue Systems Becoming Obsolete? October 2004
• Sustained Budget Deficits: Longer-Run U.S. Economic Performance and the Risk of Financial and Fiscal Dissaray. Article by Robert Rubin, Peter Orszag and Allen Sinai, January 2004
• Deep Cuts in Federal Grants in FY 2006 Budget Will Squeeze States and Localities.  Report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, February, 2005
• Billion-Dollar Deficits Greet Several Statehouses. Article by Pamela Prah, Stateline.org, January 2005

Back to top

March 30 Barry Nalebuff Author of Why Not?: How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small

In Why Not?, Yale economics professor Barry Nalebuff and Yale law professor Ian Ayers reveal four simple tools to help envision ingenious ideas for changing how we work, shop, live, and govern. They suggest that while most of us equate innovation with high-tech breakthroughs , many important ideas are actually the result of good, old-fashioned ingenuity—and everyday innovators like each of us. Nalebuff and Ayres have already used their Why Not? framework to develop mortgages that automatically refinance when interest rates drop; home equity insurance that protects families’ biggest investment in the event of a decline in market value; and Honest Tea, bottled iced tea that actually tastes like tea, not sugared water.

Barry Nalebuff is Professor of Economics and Management at Yale School of Management. An expert on game theory, he has written extensively on its application to business strategy. He is the coauthor of Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life (with Avinash Dixit) and Co-opetition (with Adam Brandenburger). Professor Nalebuff is on the boards of Trader Classified Media and Bear Stearns Financial Products, and is the chairman and co-founder of Honest Tea.

Video

• DSL/Cable or Dial-up (Windows Media)

Additional resource materials

• The Why Not Web site
• More about his book (WHY NOT? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small)
• Column in Forbes Magazine on home equity insurance
• Prof. Nabeluff's home page

Back to top

May 5 Pari Sabety Director, Urban Markets Initiative - Brookings Institution, Metropolitan Policy Program

Ms. Sabety directs the Urban Markets Intiative at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, a project focused on the impact of information in driving markets in urban areas. She has been interested in the impact of technology on economic development for many years, starting with her leadership of Governor Richard Celeste's strategic planning efforts for science and technology investments to boost Ohio's manufacturing base in the late 1980s.

More recently, she has focused on the impact of broadband technologies on the competitiveness of emerging and traditional businesses in cities and regions throughout the United States., privacy and security as barriers to widespread adoption of e-commerce technologies, and the transformative impact of information technology on the operations and competitiveness of corporations and large IT organizations, such as state and local government enterprises.

Recent research, and a major focus of her presentation here, is the importance of quality information about market risks and opportunities in urban areas, to help a variety of players invest in cities. She will also describe how communities’ use of data can help them understand their strengths and weaknesses, to guide growth planning and public investments.

Event Handouts

• Information: a Tool to Transform America's Communities?   Powerpoint presentation

Additional resource materials

• Biography and publications
• Using Information to Drive Change: New Ways of Moving Markets
• The Importance of Information to Urban Markets
• Shared Urban Data System (University of Memphis)
• The Providence Plan and Neighborhood Mapper
• The Reinvestment Fund (Philadelphia)
• Greenspan: More Development Data Needed (Associated Press)

Back to top

June 1 Doug Foy Massachusetts Secretary of Commonwealth Development

Two years ago Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney appointed Doug Foy to a new cabinet post, Secretary of Commonwealth Development, to oversee and coordinate the departments of Housing and Community Development, Transportation and Construction, Environmental Affairs, and Energy. The issues handled by these departments are too often handled separately, with departments working at cross-purposes. This groundbreaking move in governing seeks to foster an integrated approach to policy on these fronts.

For the previous 25 years Foy was President of the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), one of the premier environmental advocacy organizations in the country. During his tenure at CLF, Mr. Foy fought to conserve natural resources, protect public health and promote vital, livable communities throughout New England.

 Video

• DSL/Cable or Dial-up (Windows Media)

Additional resource materials

• Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development

Back to top

To find out more, see the invitation and registration information.