Cross-Border Post-Keynesian Conference Offers Alternative Take on Economic Issues

What’s the stock market going to look like in a year?

Answering that question and hundreds of other questions about economic issues—employment, interest rates, inequality, recession, business cycles—is the job of economists. Their predictions are bread and butter to the pundits writing, talking, blogging, and tweeting about economic issues across thousands of platforms.

At Buffalo State, the sixth Cross-Border Post-Keynesian Conference will feature a group of economists cited less often: heterodox economists who insist that mainstream economists have it wrong. “Mainstream economists believe that economic activity can be predicted with the use of formulae and models,” said Ted Schmidt, associate professor of economics and finance and author of The Political Economy of Food and Finance. “Everybody wants to know the future, so it’s not surprising that the media turn to mainstream economists. Heterodox economists think it’s not that easy to predict, and that the traditional ways to measure, analyze, and predict aren’t doing a good job. It was heterodox economists who were warning about the market crash that led to the Great Recession of 2008.”

The theme of this year’s conference is "Populism, Heterodoxy, and Globalization." It will be held Monday, June 19, and Tuesday, June 20 in the Classroom Building. Scholars from a number of universities as well as from the highly regarded Levy Economics Institute at Bard College will speak. Topics include full employment, income inequality, globalism, economic issues affecting African Americans, economic justice, and household financial conditions.

The public is invited to attend a presentation by Representative Brian Higgins, '85. Higgins will discuss “Fiscal Policy Issues: A View from the Trenches” in an open session at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, June 19, in the Burchfield Penney Art Center's Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Auditorium. Bruce Fisher, visiting professor of economics and finance, will serve as moderator.

The keynote speaker is John F. Henry, senior scholar at the Levy Economics Institute, who will present “John Maynard Keynes: A Neoliberal?” at the conference dinner at 6:00 p.m. at the Hotel Henry.

Members of the campus community and the public are invited to attend individual sessions at no charge. To attend the entire conference or the dinner/keynote address at the Hotel Henry, please register by Friday, June 16.