Dr. Marci Rossell electrifies audiences nationwide, speaking on the nexus of economics, politics, culture, and the media. Her animated style was honed when she served as the popular, lively Chief Economist for CNBC in the months immediately following September 11th. She takes complex economic issues, often dull in the button-down business press, and makes them relevant to people’s lives, families and careers.
Gene Epstein : Barron’s Economics Editor
A frequent speaker on the conference circuit, Epstein has appeared on National Public Radio, CNBC, CNN, BBC TV, and FOX. His book, ECONOSPINNING: How to Read Between the Lines When the Media Manipulate the Numbers, was published in August, 2006 by John Whiley.
Yanis Varoufakis : Economist and Professor
Yanis Varoufakis describes himself as a “libertarian Marxist,” although, he says, “It is not something that I volunteer to talk about much, because the very mention of Marx switches audiences off.” He teaches economic theory at the University of Athens, where he challenges mainstream notions — arguing that after the financial crash of 2008 we need a radically new way of thinking about the economy, finance and capitalism.
Arthur Levitt : Former SEC Chair
Arthur Levitt, who is a member of the board of Bloomberg LP, is the host of Bloomberg Radio’s A Closer Look with Arthur Levitt, a weekly program featuring one-on-one interviews with the brightest minds in business and politics. Recent guests that have joined Levitt include Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker, both former chairmen of the U.S.
Richard Florida : Urban Theorist
Richard Florida is one of the world’s leading public intellectuals. Esquire Magazine recently named him one of the ‘Best and Brightest’. He is author of the national and international best- selling book, The Rise of the Creative Class, which received the Washington Monthly’s Political Book Award and was cited as a major breakthrough idea by the Harvard Business Review.
James Rickards : Leading Economist
James Rickards is the author of the national bestseller, Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis and a Partner in JAC Capital Advisors, a hedge fund based in New York. He is a counselor and investment advisor and has held senior positions at Citibank, Long-Term Capital Management and Caxton Associates. In 1998, he was the principal negotiator of the rescue of LTCM sponsored by the Federal Reserve.
Ray Kurzweil : Accelerating Intelligence
Ray Kurzweil has been described as “the restless genius” by The Wall Street Journal, and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes. Inc. magazine ranked him #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States, calling him the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison.”
Erik Brynjolfsson : MIT Professor
Erik Brynjolfsson is the Schussel Family Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Director of the MIT Center for Digital Business, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Professor Brynjolfsson is on the academic advisory board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and Time Magazine’s Board of Economists. He is co-principal investigator on several grants by the National Science Foundation to study Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Productivity.