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Hear the Bern

53 - The Future of Our Economy (w/ Stephanie Kelton, Jeffrey Sachs, Robert Reich, and Sara Nelson)

Hear the Bern

Bernie 2020

News Commentary, News, , Politics

4.81.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2020

⏱️ 65 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bernie sits down with three leading economists and a top trade union leader to discuss how the government should respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Stephanie Kelton is a professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University. She is a leading expert on Modern Monetary Theory and a former Chief Economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee. She was named by POLITICO as one of the 50 people most influencing the policy debate in America. Jeffrey Sachs is a professor, author, and advisor to governments around the world and to the United Nations. He leads global efforts for sustainable development and climate safety. He has been an ardent supporter of Bernie Sanders in both 2016 and 2020, and strongly supports the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. He is an expert on public health and epidemics, and has advised the World Health Organization at the highest levels during the past 20 years. Professor Sachs helped to conceive and implement the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. Robert Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, served as US Secretary of Labor from 1993-1997, and is co-founder of Inequality Media which uses the power of storytelling to inform and engage the public about the realities and impacts of inequality and imbalance of power in America. Sara Nelson has served as the International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO since 2014. She first became a union member in 1996 and today she represents 50,000 of aviation’s first responders at 20 airlines. The New York Times called her "America's most powerful flight attendant" for her role in helping to end the 35 day Government Shutdown and InStyle Magazine placed her on their 2019 Top 50 Badass Women list.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm just delighted that we have three great economists and one of the strongest labor leaders in the country.

0:10.0

So I want to welcome to the panel tonight, Stephanie Kelton, who is a professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University.

0:20.0

And Stephanie and I have worked together for a number of years.

0:24.7

In fact, she was the head of our Budget Committee

0:28.1

and the United States Senate of where I am the ranking member.

0:32.0

We can hear from Jeffrey Sachs. Jeff is a professor author and advisor to governments

0:38.1

around the world and to the United Nations. We're going to hear from Robert Reich.

0:43.0

Robin is the former U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 and is today a professor of public policy at the University of California in Berkeley.

0:57.0

And we're going to also hear from Sarah Nelson, who is the International President for the Association of Flight Attendance and has held that position since

1:07.0

2014.

1:10.0

So I see Robert on the screen here.

1:13.0

Robert, let me start with you.

1:15.0

What is the state of the economy today?

1:17.0

What do you expect will be happening in the months to come?

1:20.0

Well, sadly, Bernie, jobs are hemorrhaging. You alluded to this, but the actual

1:27.4

official numbers we don't have yet, unofficially, I would say we're hitting

1:31.7

rapidly toward about 15% unemployment.

1:35.0

We could get up to, well, I hate to say it at the present rate,

1:39.1

we could get up to 25 or even 30% unemployment.

1:42.3

Just to give you a context, during the Great Depression of the 1930s,

1:46.0

we had 25% unemployment.

1:48.0

That means that if nothing changes in terms of our current trajectory,

...

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