Twilight Auditorium was packed on Wednesday, Sept. 24 to hear William M. Rodgers III give the fall 2014 David K. Smith Economics lecture entitled “Will the Economic Boom of the 1990s, known as the ‘Roaring 1990’s’ ever return.”
The David K. Smith Lecture series was established in the early 1990s after beloved alumnus and Economics professor D.K. Smith. A gift from the Schaffer family, the lecture series brings a distinguished guest lecturer to the College to give an Economics talk each semester. Past lecturers have addressed issues such as income inequality, the wage gap between men and women and other economic and social issues.
Rodgers, a professor of Public Policy and the Chief Economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, has focused his research on social inequality, skill gaps, macroeconomic policy and the labor market, and most recently the federal minimum wage.
In his introductory statement, Rodgers dedicated the talk to recently deceased Squash Coach John Illig. The two attended high school together.
“[Illig] demonstrated throughout his career the steadfast commitment to understanding, motivating, and educating young people,” said Rodgers.
Because of his expertise on the federal minimum wage, he has appeared in multiple media outlets including Meet the Press and the Financial Times, but he also has testified for the Economic Committee within the United States’ Congress.
“In essence, he is highly visible outside of academia,” said David K. Smith Professor of Applied Economics Phani Wunnava.
“In my view, he is one of the leading African-American labor economists in the country researching on different aspects of labor related policies,” said Wunnava in his opening remarks.
The talk focused on why the recovery post the 2008 recession has been so anemic. Rodgers went on to suggest, based off of his research, what policies the US needs to revitalize job growth.
He noted that since the 1990s the labor forced has changed dramatically due to technology, globalization, and diversity.
“Cultural competence is now more important than ever,” said Williams. “The way American looks today is very different from 15 years from now.”
He also noted that since the 1990s there has also been a steady decline in the labor share, or the share of compensation going to workers.
He broke down the recovery into different parts. The first , from June 2009 to February 2010, is referred to the jobless recovery. Then in February of 2010, the US economy began to add jobs. He refers to the period from February 2010 to the present as the pothole recovery.
He indicated that on average 150,000 jobs are being added per month, which is just enough to “keep us above water,” according to Rodgers, given the number of college graduates and others joining the labor force.
Rodgers went on to discuss the biggest challenges of this recession including long term unemployment, unhealthy levels of income inequality, and the absence of private sector job creation.
He then suggested that several factors such as the fall of consumption and government expenditures, and the fall of the budget deficit as not more significant in this recession than in other comparable recessions, begging the question of what is different in this recession. Why has this recovery been so drawn out?
Rodgers then introduced Alice, “asset limited, Income constrained, employed.” He defined “Alice” as households who do not earn enough to afford housing, childcare, food, transportation, and health care, pointing out that since 1958 there has been a steady decline in the government’s investment of its own people, after 1.2 trillion dollars worth of spending cuts were made, which mostly focused on investment in human capital. This decrease investment has created what he calls a group of “very vulnerable” Americans, like Alice.
He suggested that when Alice cannot meet her family’s needs then there is a negative impact on everyone and that we have an obligation to help Alice, to invest in her with education and training, Medicare, social security, for a greater good.
He claimed that the key to recovery is the reinvestment in people.
