Steven Fazzari

The Washington University in St. Louis community is invited to register for a virtual discussion with former U.S. congressmen Russ Carnahan and Tom Coleman about voting rights and the threats facing American democracy.

The current recession created by the COVID-19 pandemic has especially impacted women — particularly Black and Hispanic women — and less educated workers, magnifying existing U.S. employment inequality, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

The American Rescue Plan is a remarkable effort to jump-start the U.S. economy — unprecedented in scale outside of major wars — and will lead to very fast growth of the U.S. economy over the next year, according to Steven Fazzari, director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy.

Now more than ever, it’s important to understand issues from different perspectives. The American Democracy Lab podcast aims to do just that.

After months of failed negotiations that have left many Americans, businesses and the economy in the lurch, lawmakers are scrambling to reach a deal on an economic stimulus plan that could top $900 billion. If Congress passes the deal, will it do enough to help struggling Americans and businesses stay afloat? To answer that question, three business and economics experts at Washington University in St. Louis shared their thoughts on the proposed plan, what lawmakers got right, what is missing and what ticking time bombs remain.

The coronavirus relief act addresses some critical needs but remains more focused on “rescue” than economic “stimulus.” Additional federal intervention may very well be necessary, and soon.

The $2 trillion plan to prop up a pandemic-reeling United States, amid the news that there were 3.3 million unemployment claims lodged in the previous week, is expected to pass the House on March 27. An array of Washington University in St. Louis experts offer perspectives on the plan.

“American Democracy and the Rise of Donald Trump” will be the focus as faculty experts in history, political science, sociology, law, economics and psychology gather for a public symposium from 1-4 p.m. Thursday, March 9, in Room 100 of Brown Hall, on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis.

Social problems linked to America’s growing disparities in income and wealth will be a major focus of the re-launched Department of Sociology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, including its first co-sponsored public lecture of the fall semester. ​

Steven Fazzari, PhD, a leading scholar on the relationship between rising income inequality and macroeconomic trends in the United States, will be chair of the recently re-established Department of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, Barbara A. Schaal, PhD, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, has announced.

In “Economic Realities of the American Dream,” professors Steven Fazzari and Mark Rank examine the ­American Dream’s historical meaning, the ­traditional pathways to reach it, the current obstacles to achieving it and its viability in the future.

Steven Fazzari, PhD, will be installed as the Bert A. and Jeanette L. Lynch Distinguished Professor in a ceremony on Monday, April 21. He is the first  to receive this distinction in the Department of Economics, thanks to the generosity of the Lynches, who have provided for a total of three new professorships. The other two are named in honor of Douglass C. North, PhD, and the late Murray L. Weidenbaum, PhD.; these appointments will be made at a future date.

In a modern society struggling to loose the grip of a lengthy economic recession, is the American dream really attainable? The dream may still be possible, though much more difficult to achieve, say a renowned macroeconomist and one of America’s foremost experts on poverty, co-teachers of a course on the American Dream this semester at Washington University in St. Louis.

What is the American Dream’s role in today’s society? Experts from Washington University in St. Louis will explore this question in a panel discussion at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, in Brown Hall Lounge on the Danforth Campus. Panelists are Steven Fazzari, PhD, professor of economics in Arts & Sciences; Carter W. Lewis, playwright-in-residence in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences; and Mark R. Rank, PhD, the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the Brown School.

The United States is slowly climbing out of one of the worst economic recessions in its history. As the economy slowly begins to turn a corner, Stephen M. Fazzari, PhD, professor of economics in Arts & Sciences, will examine how we got here and where we are headed in a series of three lectures beginning Jan. 30.

While the St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association claims the World Series will provide a $24.4 million economic boost to the area, a Washington University in St. Louis economist says it won’t change the area’s economic outlook as a whole.

Discussion of the federal debt ceiling has dominated the front page recently. Several Washington University in St. Louis faculty experts, all members of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, have offered their opinions to the news media on the history of the debt ceiling and what may happen if a deal is not reached.

If the titans of finance had only been paying attention, they would have seen that former Washington University in St. Louis economics professor Hyman P. Minsky had predicted the Great Recession decades before it happened.

The intricately intertwined relationship between the global economy and politics will be the focus of a public forum titled “Politics and the Global Recession” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25 in the Knight Center. The program is being sponsored by the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

The recent meltdown in financial markets around the world, government rescue plans and the future of the global economy will be the focus of an international panel of economic experts Friday, Oct. 17, 2:30 p.m., at Washington University in St. Louis. Free and open to the public, the event will be held in the Lab Sciences Building, Room 300 on the Danforth Campus.

FazzariWUSTL economist Steven Fazzari, Ph.D., argues that we have now reached the “Minsky moment,” the time when an unsustainable financial boom turns to bust. “The serious consequences for employment and economic growth in this crisis can be mitigated, but not eliminated, by the defensive financial bailouts that the federal government has initiated,” Fazzari says.

FazzariFazzari, Ph.D., professor of economics and associate director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy in Arts & Sciences, will discuss the conditions that have contributed to the economic turmoil, and share his research regarding what’s in store for the future in his Assembly Series presentation, “The U.S. Economy in the Consumer Age.” His conclusion will cover a discussion of how, if at all, the major policy steps proposed by the presidential candidates address the deepening recession. The event, free and open to the public, will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday, September 24, in the Women’s Building, Formal Lounge.

Steven Fazzari, Ph.D., professor of economics and associate director of the Murray Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy in Arts & Sciences, will discuss the current economic crisis for the Assembly Series Wednesday, Sept. 24.

While consumer spending once helped keep the economy healthy, rising consumer debt is the reason it’s getting sick. The root cause of the current economic slowdown in the U.S. goes back several decades, according to an economics professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Mortgage woes could get worse thanks to easy credit.If it seems as though sub-prime mortgage loans stirred up trouble in the financial markets, just wait until debt problems spill over onto household spending. America’s love affair with spending could trigger the most severe downturn in economic activity seen since at least the 1980s — and possibly since the Great Depression.

What challenges does globalization present for industrialized economies, such as the United States and the European Union? How will fluctuations in dollar and euro exchange rates affect economic growth, inflation and interest rates? Will globalization influence the role of the dollar and the euro in international financial systems? These are a few of the questions to be explored May 25 as high-ranking international finance policymakers from the European Union and the United States join scholars for a conference on “The Euro and the Dollar in a Globalized Economy” at Washington University in St. Louis.