Baker Institute offers briefing on U.S. economic policy

Baker Institute offers briefing on U.S. economic policy

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

Reacting to the current economic downturn, U.S. voters now rate the economy as the single most important issue in the presidential campaign. As part of its series “Campaign 2008: The Issues Considered,” the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy will present a conference April 24 titled “Economic Policies of the Candidates: Beyond the Sound Bites.”

DOUG HOLTZ-EAKIN	AUSTAN GOOLSBEE

The conference, hosted by the Baker Institute’s Tax and Expenditure Policy Program, will feature a general discussion of the critical economic issues that face the nation. It is intended to contrast the potential solutions that have been supported broadly by Democrats and Republicans.

Featured speakers include Austan Goolsbee, the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and economic adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, and Doug Holtz-Eakin, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and senior policy adviser to Sen. John McCain.

The conference is not focused on comparing policy differences between Clinton and Obama. The speakers for this event were invited in December 2007 — long before anyone knew who would be the Republican and Democratic nominees.

The discussion will focus on several critical and contentious issues, such as how to strengthen U.S. economic performance in an increasingly integrated global economy; how to reform the federal tax code in an efficient, fair and simple manner; how to effectively increase investment in education; and how to solve the long-term fiscal crisis associated with unfunded promises in the major entitlement programs.

For more on the event, go to http://www.bakerinstitute.org/events/campaign-2008-the-issues-
considered-economic-policy-and-the-2008-presidential-election.

The event will be held in James A. Baker III Hall’s Doré Commons.

Rice faculty, staff and students who want to attend must RSVP by e-mail (bipprsvp@rice.edu) or by fax (713-348-5993).