BOOK TALK: Sunk Cost by Jillian Berman
Join us for an insightful conversation featuring Jillian Berman, CBS alum, former Knight-Bagehot Fellow, and author of the critically acclaimed new book Sunk Cost: Who’s to Blame for the Nation’s Broken Student Loan System and How to Fix It, and Professor Ronald Mann, Albert E. Cinelli Enterprise Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Charles Evans Gerber Program in Transactional Studies at Columbia Law School.
Professor Stephen Zeldes will offer opening remarks. The discussion will be moderated by Brittany Jones-Cooper, current CBS student and Knight-Bagehot Fellow, who will guide a thought-provoking fireside chat exploring the root causes of the student debt crisis, the evolving landscape of education financing, and bold ideas for systemic reform.
When: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 | 12:30-1:30PM
Where: Columbia Business School | Kravis Hall, Room 870
Lunch will be provided
This is event is co-sponsored by The Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy, The Center for Decision Sciences (CDS) at Columbia Business School and the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism
Earth Week 2025, Climate & National Security: Finding Common Ground in Energy Policy
Tuesday, April 22, 2025, 6:00–7:00 p.m. EDT
Kravis 890, Columbia Business School
Join Professors David Schizer and Gernot Wagner for a thought-provoking discussion on the intersection of energy policy, national security, and environmental sustainability.
Drawing from Professor Schizer’s recent work, Red, White, and Blue—And Also Green: How Energy Policy Can Protect Both National Security and the Environment, this conversation will explore strategies to reduce reliance on geopolitically risky energy suppliers, accelerate the transition to clean energy, and balance economic and environmental priorities through market-driven solutions. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with leading experts on one of today’s most pressing global challenges.
Speakers:
- David Schizer, Dean Emeritus and Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law and Economics at Columbia Law School
- Gernot Wagner, Senior Lecturer in Economics at Columbia Business School
This in-person-only event will be held at Columbia Business School in Kravis Hall, Rm. 890 and is limited to Columbia University community members and invited guests. You must present a Columbia University or government-issued ID that matches the name used on your registration to enter. A grab and go dinner will be provided for registered guests following the talk, while supplies last.
Invitations are non-transferable. Registration links are emailed to school listservs and intended for the recipient only. Please do not share or forward them.
This event will be photographed and video recorded. Attendee images may appear on Columbia Business School (CBS) media channels. If this is a concern, please let us know. Note that large bags, luggage, placards, and signs are not permitted inside the venue. For further inquiries or assistance, contact us at [email protected].
About David Schizer
David M. Schizer served as a dean of the Law School from 2004 to 2014 and is one of the nation’s leading tax scholars. His research also focuses on nonprofits, energy law, and corporate governance. He is the author of How to Save the World in Six (Not So Easy) Steps: Bringing Out the Best in Nonprofits as well as a co-chair of the Columbia Task Force on Antisemitism, a founder and co-director of the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy, a founder and co-chair of the Center for Israeli Legal Studies, and a founder and co-chair of the Charles Evans Gerber Transactional Studies Center.
About Gernot Wagner
Gernot Wagner is a climate economist at Columbia Business School and faculty director of its Climate Knowledge Initiative. He has written six books, including Climate Shock and, most recently, Geoengineering: the Gamble. His teaching, research, and writing focus on climate risks and climate policies. Gernot writes a monthly, globally syndicated column and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere.
The Day After DOGE, New Visions to Remake the Administrative State
So far Elon Musk's DOGE initiative has focused on cutting programs and terminating civil servants, not reforms to improve public performance. But there's broad public and expert opinion that government operating systems are overdue for overhaul:
- Many areas of government are bogged down in red tape that impedes public performance and discourages private initiative.
- Civil service has become a sinecure instead of a merit system.
- There's no clarity over the role of courts in reviewing executive actions.
This forum will focus on the operational failures of the current state, and will include proposals to empower common sense solutions, make government more manageable, and clarify the role of oversight by courts.
Speakers include former public leaders and experts in governance and public administration.
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
9:00 AM to 1:30 PM EST
Registration and light breakfast at 8:15 AM
Columbia Law School
Faculty House, Skyline Dining Room
64 Morningside Drive (Entrance on 116th between Amsterdam and Morningside Drive)
New York, NY 10027
Confirmed Panelists:
Marc J. Dunkelman
Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University; author, Why Nothing Works (February 2025)
Mitch Daniels (via Zoom)
Former Director, U.S. Office of Management and Budget; former Governor of Indiana; President Emeritus, Purdue University
Francis Fukuyama (via Zoom)
Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
Philip Hamburger
Maurice & Hilda Friedman Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Philip K. Howard
Chair, Common Good; author, Everyday Freedom (January 2024)
Jeremy Kessler
Stanley H. Fuld Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Zachary Liscow
Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Thomas W. Merrill
Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Gillian Metzger
Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law, Columbia Law School
Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili
Founding Director, Center for Governance and Markets, University of Pittsburgh
Santi Ruiz
Senior Editor, Institute for Progress
David M. Schizer
Dean Emeritus and Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law and Economics, Columbia Law School
Ilya Shapiro
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute; author, Lawless (January 2025)
Mene Ukueberuwa
Editorial Board Member, The Wall Street Journal
Paul Vallas
Former CEO, Chicago Public Schools and School District of Philadelphia; former Superintendent, Recovery School District (Louisiana)
Michele Zanini
Co-founder, The Management Lab; author, Humanocracy (August 2020)
The event will be recorded and registration is required.
Book Discussion With Professors Joseph Stiglitz and Glenn Hubbard
Thursday, December 5th, 2024
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Columbia Business School, Geffen Hall, Room 590
In his new book, The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society, Professor Joseph Stiglitz argues that it's time for the United States to articulate a broader conception of freedom than the one co-opted by the Right. Rather than free markets, this type of freedom means citizens are able to realize their economic potential through good education, access to healthcare, job opportunities and livable wages.
The book looks at the past 40 years of neoliberalism and maps out a way forward that focuses on the wellbeing of all of society.
Professor Joseph Stiglitz and Professor Glenn Hubbard met to discuss the book and the state of the economy today.
Chief Economist for the Roosevelt Institute
Joseph E. Stiglitz is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is also the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, the co-chair of The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute.
Stiglitz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001. He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and a former member and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University, in 2000. He has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 2001 and received that university's highest academic rank (University Professor) in 2003.
In 2011 Stiglitz was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2024 he was named an Honorary Academician by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society.
Professor Hubbard is a specialist in public economics, managerial information and incentive problems in corporate finance, and financial markets and institutions. He has written more than 100 articles and books on corporate finance, investment decisions, banking, energy economics and public policy, including two textbooks, and has authored The Wall and the Bridge and coauthored Balance, The Aid Trap, and Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise. Hubbard has applied his research interests in business (as a corporate director consultant on taxation and corporate finance), in government (as a former Chair of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers and the OECD Economic Policy Committee, as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department and as a consultant to the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and many government agencies) and in academia (in faculty collaboration or visiting appointments at Columbia, University of Chicago and Harvard).
He is co-chair the Committee on Capital Markets and Regulation and past chair of the Economic Club of New York and the Study Group on Corporate Boards. Hubbard is chair of the MetLife and BlackRock Fixed-Income boards and serves on the board of TotalEnergies. His past board service includes ADP, Duke Realty, and KKR Financial Corporation, along with private firms.