The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a severe global economic crisis. While the current situation in Europe and the United States is different, in an effort to jump-start their economies both the EU and the U.S. are in the process of adopting ambitious stimulus packages. The NextGeneration EU recovery plan is in the process of being ratified by the national parliament of each EU member state. In the U.S., the Biden-Harris administration has proposed major spending programs in. the form of the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan.
Join the ACG and the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung for a discussion about the state of the economy in Europe and the U.S. as we begin to emerge from the pandemic. Can Europe and the U.S. afford this level of spending? Is it sustainable in the short- to mid-term? Should we be concerned about inflation? ACG Chairman Ambassador John B. Emerson and Chairman of the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung Markus Ferber will discuss these questions and more with economist Megan E. Greene.
Ambassador John B. Emerson was named Chairman of the American Council on Germany on January 17, 2018. He is Vice Chairman at Capital Group International. Previously, he served as United States Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany from August 2013 until January 20, 2017. He served at a particularly challenging time, and in 2015 Ambassador Emerson was awarded the State Department’s prestigious Sue M. Cobb Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service, which is given annually to one non-career Ambassador. He also served on President Obama’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations.
Markus Ferber is a German politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 1994. He is a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), part of the European People’s Party (EPP). He has been the EPP Coordinator of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs since 2018 and also serves as Coordinator of the EU Regulation Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). In addition to his parliamentary work, since 2020 Mr. Ferber has served as Chairman of the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, the leading think-tank in Bavaria and affiliated with the CSU.
Megan E. Greene currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she is working on a book examining the gaps between theory and reality in economics today and how they prevent us from addressing the biggest economic, financial, political, and social issue of our time: inequality. She is also the first Dame DeAnne Julius Senior Fellow in International Economics at Chatham House. She has a biweekly column in the Financial Times on global macroeconomics and appears regularly on TV and radio outlets such as Bloomberg, CNBC, NPR, and BBC.
