PRE-DEBATE VOTE:
FOR: 57% AGAINST: 20% UNDECIDED: 23%
POST-DEBATE VOTE:
FOR: 72% AGAINST: 14% UNDECIDED: 14%
Any project funded by February’s $789 billion stimulus package is meant to use only US made steel and manufactured goods. Any financial institution receiving bail out funds must give preference to citizens. Will these policies backfire? Opponents say these policies will have little direct impact on job creation, and could have very harmful repercussions by triggering a global trade war in which each country seeks to “beggar its neighbor” in a vicious cycle of economic decline. Proponents argue that these policies focus taxpayer money to yield the biggest benefit for American families, they help American business to compete with cheap foreign labor, and that governments the world over already favor their domestic industries. Are we subsidizing the inefficient, or sparking a much needed boost to the economy?
MODERATOR
John Donvan is a correspondent for ABC News Nightline. He has served over a career of more than two decades in the following capacities for ABC News: chief White House correspondent, chief Moscow correspondent, Amman bureau chief, Jerusalem correspondent and correspondent for the ABC News magazine Turning Point. Donvan’s most recent major assignment was covering the war in Iraq as a unilateral reporter, for which the Chicago Sun Times named him one of the ten war stars.
FOR THE MOTION*
Jagdish Bhagwati is University Professor, Economics and Law, at Columbia University and senior fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has been economic policy adviser to Arthur Dunkel, Director General of GATT, Special Adviser to the UN on Globalization, and External Adviser to the WTO. The recipient of six festschrifts in his honor, he has also received several prizes and honorary degrees, including awards from the governments of India (Padma Vibhushan) and Japan (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star). Bhagwati is the author of Termites in the Trading System (2008) and In Defense of Globalization (2004).
Douglas Irwin is the Robert E. Maxwell Professor of Arts and Sciences in the Department of Economics at Dartmouth College. He is author of Free Trade Under Fire (3rd ed., 2009), The Genesis of the GATT (2008, co-authored with Petros Mavroidis and Alan Sykes), Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade (1996), and many articles on trade policy in books and professional journals. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and has also served on the staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Susan C. Schwab served as United States Trade Representative (USTR) from 2006-2009. As USTR, Ambassador Schwab was a member of President George W. Bush’s cabinet and served as his principal advisor, negotiator and spokesperson on international trade and related issues. Prior to her appointment, she served as deputy USTR. During the administration of George H.W. Bush, she was assistant secretary of commerce and director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service. She is currently a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy where she served as dean from 1995 through 2003.
AGAINST THE MOTION*
Leo W. Gerard is International President of the United Steelworkers, the dominant union in paper, forestry products, steel, aluminum, tire and rubber, glass, chemicals and petroleum. Under Gerard’s leadership, the 850,000-member USW has heightened its focus on reversing the alarming decline of U.S. manufacturing. He has worked to inject workers’ rights into trade agreements, investment priorities and corporate governance. A Canadian and son of a union miner, Gerard is also a founding board member of the Apollo Alliance, a non-profit public policy initiative for creating good jobs and energy independence.
John R. MacArthur is president and publisher of Harper’s Magazine, the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in America. He has served in this role since 1983. MacArthur is also an award-winning journalist and author of You Can’t Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America (2008), The Selling of “Free Trade”: NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy (2000), and the award-winning Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War (1992). MacArthur writes a monthly column for the Providence Journal and, in French, for Le Devoir (Montreal).
Jeff Madrick is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at The Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, The New School. His latest book, The Case for Big Government, was named one of two 2009 PEN Galbraith Non-Fiction Award Finalists. He is at work on a history of the U.S. economy since 1970, to be published by Alfred A. Knopf.
SPRING 2010 MOTIONS UNDER CONSIDERATION:
California is the first failed state · The US should step back from its special relationship with Israel · Blame teachers unions for our failing schools · Organic food is marketing hype · Give every PhD a green card · The government should police the internet · Evangelical Christianity is finished politically · Campus liberals squelch fair and balanced discourse · Bankers deserve their pay · It’s unethical to design our children · Obama’s America can declare victory over racism
*All Panelists are subject to change without notice
We have moved to a new venue: NYU SKIRBALL CENTER (566 LaGuardia Place) Reception 5:45 - 6:30PM Debate 6:45 - 8:30PM Tickets $45
The pre-debate reception offers an opportunity to meet other New Yorkers and mingle with the evening's panelists. Enjoy complimentary wine and soft drinks in the Skirball Center lobby from 5:45 - 6:30PM and gain priority access to the auditorium. Doors open at 6:30PM for debate-only ticket holders.
