EDGS Conference: Evasive Riches and the Fight against Extreme Inequality
Description
As income and wealth inequality continue to increase globally, billionaires around the world continue to consolidate wealth and power using increasingly sophisticated tactics, buttressed by a growing pool of legal and tax experts dubbed the "wealth defense industry." The Equality Development & Globalization Studies (EDGS) Program at Northwestern University's Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs invites you to attend a day of discussions on the state of extreme inequality, tax evasion, and wealth defense today.
You'll hear from many of the leading experts on the frontlines of the fight to expose and legislate against wealth consolidation and tax avoidance. They will dive into the current state of inequality and the tactics that make tracking and taxing wealth difficult, as well as strategies most likely to succeed in this fight. They will also share insights into what we can all do to push back against the "wealth defense industry" and the oligarchs whom it protects.
The symposium will begin at 8:15 a.m. with an introductory address by EDGS's director Jeffrey Winters, Professor of Political Science, followed by two morning panels and two afternoon panels, with a bagged lunch in between. The event will end at 5:00 p.m.
Agenda
- 7:30 am - 8:15 am
Registration and Continental Breakfast
- 8:15 am - 8:30 am
Welcome and Opening Remarks: Jeffrey Winters
- 8:30 am - 10:00 am
Panel #1: Where We Are Now
This panel will lay out the state of inequality, tax evasion, and wealth defense in the world today.
- 10:00 am - 10:30 am
Coffee Break
- 10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Panel #2: Losing a Valiant Fight
This panel will explore the shortcomings and failures of the tactics and strategies used by those on the frontlines of this fight.
- 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Bagged Lunch
- 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Panel #3: The Cutting Edge
This panel will highlight strategies from around the world that are working to check oligarchic power and promote transparency and responsibility in tax policy.
- 3:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Coffee Break
- 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Panel #4: What Comes Next
This panel will suggest new ideas for what people and governments can do to reduce inequality and seize on political momentum against oligarchs.
Lineup
Steven Baker
Specializing in international financial litigation including trust disputes, commercial disputes and civil fraud, Baker is an expert at unravelling complex offshore trust structures and resolving the issues which arise. He is frequently instructed to advise on the strategic approach needed for cross-border litigation.
Jack Blum
Details forthcoming!
Sarah Chayes
Details forthcoming!
Leah McGrath Goodman
Details forthcoming!
Brooke Harrington
Details forthcoming!
James Henry
Details forthcoming!
David Cay Johnston
David Cay Johnston began documenting our government’s central role in creating inequality in 1995, when he joined The New York Times, reporting that earned him a Pulitzer Prize and produced a bestselling trilogy on the American economy. Since 2024, he's been a professor of practice at Rochester Institute of Technology, teaching white-collar crime, law, and journalism, following 15 years on the faculty at Syracuse University College of Law. His next book will propose an entirely new federal tax code.
Gary Kalman
Kalman is the Executive Director of Transparency International U.S. (TI US) where he oversees the organization’s U.S. operations focusing on illicit finance and the U.S. role in global anti-corruption efforts. Prior to joining TI US, he was a founder and Executive Director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition where he advanced policies and practices to enhance financial integrity in U.S. markets and globally. At the FACT Coalition and later, with TI US, he led successful efforts to increase corporate transparency in the U.S., increase corporate tax transparency, and worked with emerging market investors to champion the adoption of a first-of-its-kind governance-linked bond. He was also a founder of Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition that, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, led the successful campaign to pass the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Shortly after coming to Washington, he directed the federal legislative office for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and was a leading voice for congressional ethics and lobbying reform having sat on a bipartisan task force convened by the Speaker of the House. He taught at the LaSalle University School of Business and the Fox School of Business at Temple University. He is currently an Advisory Committee member of the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies and has testified on multiple occasions as an expert witness on financial integrity before the U.S. Congress.
Matti Kohonen
Matti Kohonen was appointed FTC director in early 2021. He previously worked at Christian Aid as the Economic Justice Lead Advisor, working to ensure that global economic governance is fair, accountable and that all countries participate equally in managing tax, debt, anti-money laundering rules, in achieving a global economy that is aligned with human rights, gender justice and climate justice as goals. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where based on ethnographic research project in Ghana he looked at the social values of social enterprises in the cocoa and IT sectors, and how value creation works beyond economic value. He has worked over 10 years also on the impact of financial and tax policies on developing countries and populations, and is a founding member of the Tax Justice Network, part of Oxfam's inequality campaign, and author of an edited volume ‘Righting the Economy'. Matti worked for a number of years in developing country-based analysis and proposals for progressive fiscal policies. He has also been actively involved in the Financing for Development (FfD) process at the UN, and more recently in the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Co-operation, and how established standards and norms for private finance can meet development objectives.
Zoë Reiter
Details forthcoming!
FAQs
- I can only attend part of the conference. Can I register for only part of the day?
Yes! At checkout, please select the tickets for the panels you will attend.
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