News

Isabella Weber, Groundbreaking Panelist at the New York Times DealBook Summit

Isabella Weber, was a grondbreaking panelist at the  New York Times DealBook Summit, representing "The Economy: What's Next." The DealBook Groundbreakers series features innovators from many sectors, including labor, health, A.I., and entrepreneurship. Representing a variety of public and private sectors, from technology and finance to education and the arts, our guest Groundbreakers will lead a table in a lunchtime discussion, designed to spark conversation around critical questions of the day. Read more...

Jayati Ghosh Interviewed byProject Syndicate

Jayati Ghosh, was interviewed on PS Say More about inflation, the IMF and debt, women’s empowerment and more. “[A]dvanced-economy rate hikes have caused far-reaching damage, especially in the developing world, though developed countries, too, stand to lose. And the rate hikes may not have even been necessary, because inflation was always going to decline as cost pressures subsided,” Read more...

Gregor Semieniuk Co-Authored an opinion piece "Bold Climate Fixes Won’t Wreck Middle Class Retirement Plans"

Gregor Semieniuk, economics and PERI, has co-authored an opinion piece outlining research that demonstrates how moving away from fossil fuels will impact the wealthy more than those with lower incomes: “We estimate that losses amount to less than half a percent of the net wealth of [the] wealthiest 1% or 10% of Americans.” Inequality ensures that feared financial losses moving away from fossil fuels will fall most heavily on the wealthy, and not on the poor and middle class.  Read more...

Léonce Ndikumana, Interviewed at the Recent Research Dissemination on Capital Flight and Natural Resources in Ghana

Léonce Ndikumana, economics and PERI, was interviewed at the recent Research Dissemination on Capital Flight and Natural Resources in Ghana about growing wealth inequality in the nation, which has seen individual private wealth grow to US$56 billion yet experiences capital flight benefiting foreign investors: "The data clearly show there are sufficient local individuals with the means to invest." Read more...

Isabella Weber, economics, is the subject of Seller's Inflation, an engaging animated short by the Institute for New Economic Thinking

Isabella Weber, economics, is the subject of Seller's Inflation, an engaging animated short by the Institute for New Economic Thinking that illustrates an interview clip and asks, "Is inflation just a number game or does it hold deeper societal implications?" Watch as she challenges traditional economic stances on inflation and delves into the social dimensions of pricing. Discover how context shapes our reactions to price hikes and why understanding this can be a game-changer. Watch here...

Chavon Rogers, PhD Candidate, Presents Research on Clean Energy Transition

Chavon Rogers a PhD candidate specializing in climate financing. “How do we fund the climate transition,” he asked, “and how do we move capital from ‘fossil fuel or dirty energy’ to clean energy? And how do we incentivize some of that?” Rogers pointed to parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes tax breaks and incentives for electric vehicle purchase, as an example of proactive lawmaking. Massachusetts, he said, has a program to facilitate transitions to solar energy.  Read more...

So Who Brought India Independence From Colonial Rule?

A talk by the author, November 7th, 5-7pm Gordon Hall, Third Floor Conference Room, 418 N. Pleasant Street, UMass.
 
The official website commemorating 75 years of Indian Independence does not carry a single photo, video or story of any living freedom fighters, and mainstream media has largely ignored the savagery of British colonialism. The book "The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom" shares the stories of 15 ordinary Indians who, along with millions of others, fought against the British Raj in courageous ways without personal gain. Palagummi Sainath is founder-editor of the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI). A journalist and reporter for over four decades, he has covered rural India for over 30 years. His new book, The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom, is about the last living fighters in India’s struggle for Independence. He has won over 60 national and international reporting awards and has been teaching journalism for over three decades. PARI is a multimedia digital platform that covers every region and section of rural people in 15 languages. In 7 years, PARI has won over 50 journalism awards. Sainath currently resides in Mumbai.
 
 
Sponsored by
Political Economy Research Institute - Asian Political Economy Program,
Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Five College Consortium.

 

Isabella Weber Named in the 2023 TIME100 Next

Isabella Weber, was included in the 2023 TIME100 Next list of emerging leaders from around the world. Weber is known internationally for her research on systemically important prices, strategic price stabilization and what she calls “sellers’ inflation” – the ability of firms with market power to hike prices and boost profits in an emergency.  “By challenging conventional thinking, Isabella Weber is helping to redefine global economic policy,” says UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes. “I congratulate her on this impressive international honor, and I look forward to seeing where her research takes us next.”

“Weber is challenging the conventional wisdom that giant companies don’t price-gouge—and she’s been proved right,” writes Massachusetts U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren in the “TIME100 Next” article. “She correctly identified how the Fed’s extreme interest-rate hikes are ill-suited to address this profiteering, arguing it should pause its increases before throwing millions out of work. Our nation needs structural changes to promote competition and investment, and Weber’s bold ideas are helping shift the economic paradigm.”  Read more...

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