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About the participants:

Dr. Dean Baker is currently Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Previously, he was a senior research fellow with the Century Foundation in New York and a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. His writing has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Washington Post, American Prospect, and Challenge, among many other publications. He has written on many areas in economics; among his recent papers are “Medicare Choice Plus: The Solution to the Deficit Problem,” and “Financing Drug Research: What Are the Issues?”  He is also the co-author, with Mark Weisbrot, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 1999). Other work includes Getting Prices Right: The Battle Over the Consumer Price Index (M.E. Sharpe Press, 1997), which was selected for the 1998 Choice Outstanding Academic Book List, and Globalization and Progressive Economic Policy (Cambridge University Press, 1998), edited with Jerry Epstein and Bob Pollin. He is also author of the Economic Reporting Review, a weekly examination of the economic reporting in the New York Times and the Washington Post, and periodic analyses of the federal government's economic data on prices, employment, corporate profits, and the GDP.  He has also appeared on PBS' Lehrer Newshour, Fox News, NPR, and numerous other television and radio programs. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.

Mr. Gene Sperling is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.  Previously, he served as President Clinton’s National Economic Adviser and Director of the National Economic Council from 1997-2001. He served as Deputy National Economic Advisor from 1993-1996.  Mr. Sperling also works on a variety of economic and international issues in several capacities: he is Senior Fellow for Economic Policy and Director of the Center on Universal Education at the Council of Foreign Relations; Chair of the US Global Campaign for Education; a Contributing Editor and Columnist for Bloomberg Business News; and a Governor of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange; and is a contributing writer and consultant on NBC television drama, The West Wing.  He frequently advises members of Congress and the Senate on economic issues and was recently Senior Economic Advisor to the Kerry-Edwards campaign. Mr. Sperling is currently working on a forthcoming book entitled The Pro-Growth Progressive.  Mr. Sperling graduated from the University of Minnesota and Yale Law School, and attended Wharton Business School. 

Dr. Jason Furman is a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  Previously Dr. Furman served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy in the Clinton Administration.  Dr. Furman has been a visiting lecturer at Columbia and Yale Universities.  In addition, Dr. Furman served as a Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers, Senior Economic Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank, and Director of Economic Policy for the Kerry-Edwards campaign.  Dr. Furman received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

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The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies reflect these values. We work to find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is "of the people, by the people, and for the people."