October 28th at 11:30am (new date & time) Current Affairs: Income Inequality-Is it a problem? If so, what are the solutions? What are the Chinese doing to address their income inequality? Mike Wheeler will moderate the discussion. Gary Banks will argue for the proposal and Mark Nunan will argue the opposing side.

Study Materials

Based on Washington Post Series “Sharing the Wealth” and the IntelligenceSquared Debate 

“Economic inequality has become a linchpin of modern politics. As nations around the world face a reckoning on racial and social justice and work to combat the economic impacts of the pandemic, we ask: Is it time to redistribute the wealth? Should we address growing inequality by overhauling our tax system, expanding our social safety nets, and investing more in public initiatives like universal health care, education, and infrastructure? Or would a wealth transfer unduly punish the economic elite, destroy the promise of a meritocracy, and inevitably lead to excessive government intervention in our social and economic lives?” 

Washington Post Series on “Sharing the Wealth”

Backgrounder from the Council on Foreign Relations

Is Economic Inequality  Really a Problem? 

Intelligence Squared U.S. Debate:  It’s Time to Redistribute the Wealth

It’s Time to Redistribute the Wealth-Research Brief

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/intelligence-squared-u-s-debates/id216713308?i=1000529064442

Warning of Income Gap, Xi Tells China’s  Tycoons to Share Wealth

A Distorted View of Wealth Inequality

6 facts about economic inequality in the U.S. 

How the Left Exaggerates Income Inequality -WSJ

How to Distort Income Inequality-WSJ

A Bipartisan consensus on Income Inequality-WSJ

6 Policies to Combat Inequality-Center for American Progress

Income Inequality Isn’t the Problem-Hoover Institution 

Fixing Income Inequality-Hoover Institution 

Middle-Class Pay Lost Pace-Is Washington the Blame-New York Times 

This Viral Video is Right: We Need to Worry About Income Inequality

Corporate Revenue Keeps Shrinking-Scott Galloway

Americans know Wealth inequity is a problem, but what does it look like? 

The Problem with the Peloton Economy

Why Do People Tolerate Wealth Inequality? 

February 17th  at 11am: Reimagining immigration policies. Ric Grefé will lead an interactive workshop using design thinking techniques to capture observations and ideas from all those attending. Participants will need to see the problem from many perspectives. According to the Interactive Design Foundation, design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand situations,  challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. The session will last 1.5 hours.

Real Life as a Palestinian-Has America gotten this one right or wrong?  David Maloof will moderate the discussion.

1. Background

I am pleased to lead an in-house conversation on “Real Life as a Palestinian: Has America Gotten This Right or Wrong?” on September 16th  from 11am-12 noon.

To save on time, let me start by providing my personal vantage point.

As a successful international lawyer, some two decades ago I asked: how could I make the biggest difference in this life?  I decided that the biggest challenge I could undertake was to try to solve Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

I then undertook the following tasks, among others:

1.  Visiting Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Lebanon to participate in real life; funding recreational facilities and a basketball court at a Palestinian refugee camp; serving on the national board of a Christian organization (“Churches for Middle East Peace”) dedicated to this cause, still a member; taking out a ½ page ad in the New York Times; paying for highway billboards; attending international Jewish organization’s peace conferences and lecturing on college campuses about my experiences; reviewing legal brief for US peace activist NGO.

2. Meeting with Middle East Christian Leaders; Palestinian leaders in Ramallah; Chief Palestinian negotiator (Saeb           Erekat) and Palestinian and Arab leaders and ambassadors in Washington and London; Israeli Foreign Ministry in Tel Aviv; members of Knesset in Tel Aviv; Israeli Settlement leaders; and Israeli media elite.

3. Meetings with US Senators, their staffs, and officials in the State Department; meeting with National Security Council Staff in the Obama White House; meeting with US Consul General in Jerusalem; providing informational documentaries to the same National Security Staff; meeting with George Mitchell, U.S. peace envoy.

4. Interacting with US media to place Palestinian peacemakers on US television and radio programs, such as CNN International and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (2009).

5. Arranged for the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to directly address the American people in English on a college campus (The Cooper Union) and call for peace (September 22, 2014).

Notes on the parameters of the September 16, 2021 discussion given the potential breadth of the topic and the limited time:

1. I would like to hew closely to the subject of: “Real Life for a Palestinian.”

2. I suggest that given time restraints we avoid discussion of historical events and try to stick to the current situation in 2020-2021.

3. I suggest that it would also probably be useful to focus on current living conditions in 2020 and 2021 in Palestine and in Israel.

4. suggest that we should focus more on current and possible future US policies than past ones.

Media

 I suggest that you might go online and watch some of the two following media:

1. “John Oliver – Last Week Tonight” Israel v. Palestine (5/17/21)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jgbw2g1hobvpevv/John%20Oliver%20-%20Israel%20v.%20Palestine%20Conflict.mp4?dl=0

2. “Budrus” (2009) (1 hour, 22 minutes)

https://www.amazon.com/Budrus-Ayed-Morrar/dp/B00B1Z20UQ

3. “Five Broken Cameras” (2011). (Nominated for an Academy Award in 2013 for “Best Documentary.”) (1 hour, 34 minutes)

https://www.amazon.com/5-Broken-Cameras-English-Subtitled/dp/B00B03Z858

4. “The Daily Show” (guest Mustafa Barghouti) (2009)

https://www.cc.com/video/l00143/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-exclusive-anna-baltzer-mustafa-barghouti-extended-interview-pt-1

5. Anna Balzer, “Life in Occupied Palestine.” (2008)

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Occupied-Palestine-Eyewitness-Stories/dp/0930852478

6. Written Materials

I also suggest reading some of the following written materials:

Daily Life/Human Rights in Israel

1. B’Tselem, “A Regime of Jewish Supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is Apartheid,” (2021)https://www.btselem.org/sites/default/files/publications/202101_this_is_apartheid_eng.pdf
2. B’Tselem, “This is Apartheid,” (2021) https://thisisapartheid.btselem.org/eng/#1
3. Human Rights Watch, “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution,” (2021) https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution
4. Amnesty International, “Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories 2020” (2020) https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/

Treatment of Children in Palestine

1. UNICEF, “The Situation of Palestinian Children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon,” (2010)https://www.unicef.org/oPt/PALESTINIAN_SITAN-final.pdf
2. Human Rights Watch, “Second Class: Discrimination against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel’s Schools,” (2001)https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel2/ISRAEL0901.pdf

Life in Gaza in 2020-2021

 1. Ghalayini, Basama, “A Gazan’s View on Hamas: It’s Not Complicated,” (2021) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/24/opinion/israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire.html

2. Save the Children, “Denial of Healthcare outside Gaza Is a Death Sentence for Children,” (2020) https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/denial-healthcare-outside-gaza-death-sentence-children-save#:~:text=oPt-,’Denial%20of%20healthcare%20outside%20Gaza%20is%20a%20death,for%20children’%3A%20Save%20the%20Children&text=Children%20in%20Gaza%20are%20dying,Save%20the%20Children%20is%20warning

3. Al Jazeera, “‘Staggering’: WHO Says 200,000 Palestinians in Need of Health Aid,” (2021) https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/2/who-says-nearly-200000-palestinians-in-need-health-of-health-aid

4. BBC, “Israel-Gaza Violence: The Conflict Explained,” (2021) https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44124396#:~:text=A%20ceasefire’s%20been%20agreed%20between,240%20people%20have%20been%20killed.&text=Israel%20and%20Hamas%20both%20claimed%20victory%20in%20the%20latest%20conflict

5. Conley, Julia, “This Is the Price of War,” (2021) https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/27/price-war-israeli-newspaper-publishes-photos-all-67-palestinian-children-killed-gaza

6. Balousha, Hazem and Berger, Miriam, “The U.N. Once Predicted Gaza Would be ‘Uninhabitable’ by 2020.  Two Million People Still Live There,” (2020)https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/01/01/un-predicted-gaza-would-be-uninhabitable-by-heres-what-that-actually-means/

7. Hearst, David, “Gaza 2020: How Easy It Is for the World to Delete Palestinian Pain,” (2019) https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza-2020-un-report-history-forgotten-israel-blockade

8. Kuttab, Jonathan, “Israel Has Effective Control over Gaza,” (2020) http://arabcenterdc.org/viewpoint/israel-has-effective-control-over-gaza/

9.  Mahmoud, “Speech at The Cooper Union: Rethink Palestine,” (2014) https://oldwebsite.palestine-studies.org/jps/fulltext/188331

 Anthologies

a.The Electric Typewriter, “8 Great Articles about Israel/Palestine” (2019) https://tetw.org/IsraelPalestine

b. Foote, Jilliam, Jensen, Kristen, and Wintz Neighbor, Tese, “Understanding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Resource Packet for Educators” (2009)https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/csrcs/wp-content/uploads/sites/478/2017/08/Israel-Palestine-Resource-Packet.pdf

Link to Famie’s presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R4gvZdicQY

Host: Bob Baker

Discussion Leader: Charles Salmans

On Thursday, May 20 at 11 a.m., I will lead a Current Affairs discussion on Covid — an update. We’ll address vaccine resistance and what may be required to prevent further mutations that potentially could get around the vaccines, the challenge of vaccinating people in poor, high density populations, whether a vaccine passport should be required, and what lessons have been learned so we are better prepared should another pandemic arise.

Charles

Slides from the discussion: Covid Discussion DMA Current Affairs

Updates on the latest Covid infection rates, vaccination rates, hospitalizations, and deaths are available from several sources.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/05/11/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/

Breakdowns for Connecticut, the United States, and Around the World

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/connecticut-covid-cases.html

CDC data on vaccination rates

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home

Wall Street Journal — US Covid metrics take a positive turn

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-covid-19-metrics-signal-hopeful-turn-11620423357?mod=searchresults_pos3&page=1

Taking ‘Extraordinary Measures,’ Biden Backs Suspending Patents on Vaccines

The Biden administration, siding with some world leaders over the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, came out in favor of waiving intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/us/politics/biden-covid-vaccine-patents.html?campaign_id=4&emc=edit_dk_20210506&instance_id=30321&nl=dealbook&regi_id=23957096&segment_id=57373&te=1&user_id=42ca5c51e1c82904455ab0db126e5d4c

Can Employers Require Vaccination

Vaccine hesitancy, misinformation is just part of the problem.

“The Magic of RNA: From CRISPR to Coronavirus Vaccines.” presented by Tom Cech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtQkoW8yQ4A

Host: Bob Baker

Discussion Leader: Henry Cavanna

Outline For Discussion on April 15 about Federal Debt and Deficits. Do They Matter?

I. Background of the US Budget 

II. History of National Debt and Budget Deficits 

III. Modern Monetary Theory and the Impact of Debt and Deficits

Readings:

https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2021/SumnermodernmonetarytheoryPartI.html

https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2021/SumnermodernmonetarytheoryPartII.html

https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-does-federal-government-spend-its-money

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/opinion/biden-us-economy.html?referringSource=articleShare

Federal Spending Charts

CA Host: Bob Baker

Presenter: Jim Phillips

Biden’s American Rescue Plan-Discussion Topics

What will the likely impact be for unemployment from the passage the ARP? 

The US will see improved economic growth in 2021 over 2020.  How much of the growth will be the result of the Covid relief bill?   major or minor impact?

What has been the effect on the size of the workforce due to added amounts to unemployment payments?  Has the workforce been reduced permanently?The bill includes more generous subsidies for health care under the ACA. Childcare tax benefits are for two years. Is it expected they will be made permanent, and at what cost?  

Certain business sectors most burdened by the pandemic are restaurants, travel, entertainment. What is the outlook for the recovery in these sectors?

The ARP contains $10 billion for infrastructure, an almost insignificant amount. Can we expect infrastructure proposals this year for a major amount?

What is the outlook for more regulation? Incentives for climate change? How will it be paid for?

What are expectations for tax hikes on corporate and personal income? Who will be targeted?

Will raising the corporate taxes from 21% to a likely 28% derail the recovery?

What is the likelihood of making cannabis legal at the Federal level under Biden?

2021 Economic Outlook under Biden Administration

2021 Global Economic Outlook _ Morgan Stanley 2_21

2021 stock outlook _ Fidelity

Economic outlook for 2021 _ Fidelity

Blackstone

Biden’s China Policy

Unemployment

Stimulus

First 100 days

Tax Hikes

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/business/infrastructure-biden-stimulus.html?searchResultPosition=1

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/04/politics/senate-stimulus-package-what-to-expect-guide/index.html

Host: Bob Baker

Bert von Stuelpnagel & Bryan Hooper will compare and contrast the health systems of Germany and the UK.

Host: Bob Baker

Discussion Leader: David Mace