March 21, 2023 11:18 pm

The 2023 Leon Panetta Lecture Series will return to reside, in-particular person forums at the Monterey Conference Center this spring. (James Herrera/Monterey Herald)

The economy and inflation will be the major speaking points as the Leon Panetta Lecture Series, recognized for bringing national leaders, policy authorities and journalists to the Monterey Peninsula, returns to a reside format from the Monterey Conference Center on March. 27.

The guest list for the initial of a series of 4 lectures this year consists of Michael Boskin, a professor of economics and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution,  Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Accountable Federal Spending budget and Christina Romer, the Garff B. Wilson Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Also amongst the guests will be journalist John Harwood.

The series, getting into its 26th season, was forced by COVID-19 security restrictions to go to an on the net video format in 2020. This season it returns to its original format with ticket holders welcome to view the occasion reside at the conference center. Tickets for person lectures can be bought for $one hundred by calling the Panetta Institute at 831-582-4200.

This year’s premiere lecture is entitled “The Economy and Inflation – Can We Prevent a Recession?”

“Whether at the grocery retailer, the gas station, the bank, or on Wall Street,  Americans are worried about financial stability, the influence of an financial slowdown and the threat of recession,” mentioned Panetta, the former Secretary of Defense and White Residence Chief of Employees in a press release. “In an try to combat inflation, the Federal Reserve has aggressively elevated interest prices, but larger rates persist. At the exact same time, the economy is developing, unemployment is low and shoppers are obtaining.

“Will there be a ‘soft landing’ or a ‘recession?’”

Panetta will stick to the forum’s classic format of asking the panelists queries, which includes these generated by the audience and a panel of neighborhood media members.

Panetta named his guests “some of today’s top financial authorities.”

Boskin is recognized for his study on planet financial development, tax and spending budget theory and policy, saving and consumption patterns, and the implications of altering technologies and demography on capital, labor and solution markets according to the Panetta Institute. He was chairman of the President’s Council of Financial Advisers from 1989 to 1993, when he helped resolve the Third Planet Debt and Savings and Loan economic crises.

MacGuineas is an professional on spending budget, tax and financial policy. As a top spending budget professional for the previous 20 years and a political independent, MacGuineas operates closely with members of each parties and serves as a resource on Capitol Hill. MacGuineas worked at the Brookings Institution and on Wall Street.

Romer is 1 of the world’s top financial scholars according to the Insititute. An professional in financial history and macroeconomics, Romer is greatest recognized for her function on the causes of the Excellent Depression, the subsequent recovery, and the conduct and effects of monetary and fiscal policy. She has also researched the effects of financial development and inflation, and the effects of tax cuts on private investment and government spending. From January 2009 till September 2010, she served as chair of President Obama’s Council of Financial Advisers. In that function, she helped formulate the response to the 2008 economic crisis and the subsequent recession.

Harwood is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and broadly respected professional in presidential politics. He has served as a White Residence correspondent for CNN and chief Washington correspondent for CNBC.

Amongst the queries Panetta says he will pose are: will assistance for banks stabilize? Can Republicans and Democrats come with each other to address the debt ceiling without the need of causing a default that will place the economy at higher danger? How can we address spending priorities like the student debt relief, infrastructure and the war in Ukraine though getting mindful of the influence on the national debt and the deficit?