UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policies Priorities and former economic adviser to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, will speak on “Making Sense of the Budget Crisis” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. His talk is part of the Penn State Democracy Institute’s lecture series. Co-sponsored by the University Libraries, the event is free and open to the public.
Bernstein will speak on the 2013 budget and deficit ceiling crises, as well as those that loom on the horizon for 2014. He will offer an analysis that draws on his experience as economic adviser and policy analyst in the Obama administration. An extended question-and-answer session will follow the talk.
Bernstein served as chief economist and economic adviser to Biden, executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class and as a member of President Obama’s economic team from 2009-11. Prior to joining the Obama administration, he was a senior economist and the director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
His expertise includes federal and state economic and fiscal policies, income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, international comparisons, and the analysis of financial and housing markets.
Based in the College of the Liberal Arts, the Penn State Democracy Institute brings together the top faculty and graduate students in several disciplines to develop knowledge and training that will provide legislators, policymakers, voters and the public with better ways to improve debate, discussions and governing in our country. Through teaching, creative research projects and public programs, the Democracy Institute will explore better routes to deciding controversial issues, like health care and environmental regulation, and address how government can become more responsive to the people.
For more information on the Democracy Institute, go to http://democracyinstitute.la.psu.edu/.