Prominent Economists Convene at Simonâ€™s Rock for Panel Discussion

10:50AM / Thursday, November 06, 2008Print Story | Email Story

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass —The election may be over, but the economic crisis remains. Bard College at Simon’s Rock brings prominent economist and President of the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, and associate professor of economics and Levy Institute research scholar, Rania Antonopoulos to campus for an economic panel discussion on Wednesday, November 19, 2008, at 5:00 p.m. Moderated by economics faculty member Fatma Gül Ünal, panelists will offer expert insight into the financial crisis and the future of the economy. The event takes place in the McConnell Theater in the College’s Daniel Arts Center. It is free and open to the public.

Papadimitriou is president of the Levy Institute, executive vice president and Jerome Levy Professor of Economics at Bard College. He has testified on a number of occasions in hearings of Senate and House of Representatives Committees of the U.S. Congress, was vice-chairman of the Trade Deficit Review Commission of the U.S. Congress (2000–01) and was a member of the Competitiveness Policy Council's Subcouncil on Capital Allocation. Papadimitriou heads the Levy Institute's macroeconomic modeling team studying and simulating the U.S. and world economies. In addition, he has authored and coauthored studies relating to Federal Reserve policy, fiscal policy, employment growth, and Social Security reform.

Antonopoulos specializes in gender and economics, as well as international competition and globalization. She has been a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and, since 2002, a principal investigator and coordinator of the GEM-IWG Knowledge Networking Program on Engendering Macroeconomics and International Economics. In 2007, Antonopoulos oversaw the launch of an interactive website as groundwork for the knowledge-sharing initiative Economists for Full Employment. EFE seeks to link and mobilize a global community of economists, academics, public policy advocates, and nongovernmental organizations, with the principal objective of placing job creation at the center of development and macroeconomic strategies. She more recently headed up a team of Levy Institute researchers studying the impact of public employment guarantee schemes (EGS).

Moderating the discussion is Simon’s Rock economics faculty member, Gul Ünal’s. Ünal has received fellowships to participate in scholarly workshops on development economics, inequality, poverty, and gender. She is also a staff economist for the Center for Popular Economics (CPE) at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has taught economic courses for numerous non-profit organizations. Ünal has also presented her research at many national and international conferences.

For more information, visit www.simons-rock.edu/newsroom.

Bard College at Simon’s Rock is the nation’s first and only college designed expressly to educate bright and motivated students after the tenth or eleventh grade. Founded in 1966, Simon’s Rock later joined the Bard College system in 1979. It maintains its own campus in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and unique identity as a supportive intellectual home for early college students. Bard College at Simon’s Rock enrolls approximately 450 full-time students, and grants both Associate of Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees in more than 40 academic concentrations.

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1. Sam Walton had it right. All employees should have stock in the company they work for. The problem Sam had is that when an employee had a need for funds, Sam had no way to prevent the employee from selling his or her stock, thus Employee owners were reverting back in-fact and more importantly in mind-set, to just an hourly worker. Sam's idea, had it worked as well for the employees as it has for the overall Walmart Corporation, would have moved thousands of workers well up into the middle class. Some of the first employees who did not sell their stock became firmly established in the upper middle class, if not wealthy. Social Security is facing a deadline for providing future retirement income now that the baby boomers are entering the picture. Our resources are not going to be able to meet these demands without just printing more and more paper debt. If the government can guarantee certain savings in bank accounts through the F.D.I.C., why not establish a program that would require that every employee own a regulated block of stock (Retirement Account) made up of stock in the company the employee works for and, so the employee will not have all his retirement eggs in one basket, include in this retirement basket high rated stocks from other non-competing companies. It seems to me the government could guarantee these programs as they do through the F.D.I.C regulated plans. This surely would be less expensive to taxpayers than trying to overhaul and fund social security. Most young people I talk with NOW, state they donâ€™t think Social Security will be available when they retire. Just as we provide student loans to help provide a college education, once the student graduates we should consider providing employment loans that would start the employee ownership package rolling. The employee would pay for the start up plan through a regulated payroll deduction. When the startup package is paid for, it would be mandatory that the deductions continue and the employees startup/retirement package would continue to grow untill retirement. If the employeeâ€™s is terminated prior to retirement, the government could establish policy for an escrow holding account pending re-establishing or tranferring the fund with a new employer. Including cases of no employment available or disability. Provisions could also be made in the G I Bill program earmarking a part of the package to provide the funds for the purchase of the employee's start up stock package for those leaving the military in search of employment. Think about the effect this would have on startup businesses, where each employee hired is bringing not just his or her skills, but also bringing investment capital. Think how customers would be treated by employee owners, and the respect customers would have for employees when they know this person actually does own the company. Why would a corporation want outside investors electing CEOâ€™s and board members? I feel all corporations should have at least 51% employee ownership. 2, The Peter Principle is the principle that "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence." This now seems to apply to Corporations more so than employees. The bigger the Corporation the harder they fall. One way to reduce the devastating effects of a giant corporate failure would be to break it down into smaller component production ficilities. In the automotive field, this would be the perfect time. Rethinking the industry is ongoing due to the high cost of energy. More fuel efficent vehicles, alternative power source and hybreds are the future. Retooling will be required whether the production facilities are the same central mega factories or smaller compact units spread out across the country. Why not construct and locate mini assembly and fabrication units close to the local Dealerships. Engine production could be spread out all across the country in units such as , Piston plants, crankshaft plants, every part a mini production facility. I believe the reduction in labor cost alone could cover the cost of constructing the mini ficillities. The technology is available to monitor and supervise each facility remotely from a central location.If the treasury is going to bailout these corporations anyway. I say attach the funds to employee loans and let the employee owners bring in investment capital to help put it all together. This way we are putting people to work, not just paying out to professional investors. 3. Vegas & Wallstreet. Wall Street is the BIG APPLE CASINO. Vegas has been ahead of Wall Street gamblers (Traders) for along time. For instance, if youâ€™re a card counter ( a system that gives the player an advantage over the house ) playing Black Jack in a Vegas casino, even though card counting is legal (like selling short or certain other stock and option trading is legal), when the pitt boss catches on to you, the casino has the right to ask you to leave and even ban you from coming back. Why canâ€™t Wall Street take the same position with their trading (gambling) When it is determined that any spicific type of trading action, legal or illegal is detrimental to the overall health of the stock market, it could and should be stoped. 4. Fiduciary responsibility & Golden parachutes, Itâ€™s a well known fact that institutional and private fund investors, by virtue of the scale of their collective investments, have enormous influence over financial markets and the global economy as a whole. In 1999 United States public pension funds alone had assets representing 46 percent of the gross domestic product and 33 percent of the New York Stock Exchangeâ€™s capitalization. Additional holdings by religious, educational and public institutions, unions and foundations further increase these numbers. As a result, these institutionsâ€™ financial decisions have a huge impact on society. The collective power of these institutions could be limited to 10 to 30% holding in any one corporation thus reducing their power to control the election of CEOs and board members along with their outragous contracts that include multi-million dollar bonuses and golden parachutes.This action would tend to secure the short and long term interests of employee owners beneficiaries, and other shareholders and stakeholders alike. The realities of the 21st century require fiduciaries to be concerned with the impact of financial, social and environmental factors on the performance of their company to fulfill their legal obligations and maximize shareholder value. In addition, as employee owners, fiduciaries have the duty and the opportunity to promote good corporate governance to protect the assets under their care, and because the corporation is at least 51% employee owned the focus of the CEO and board is not just the bottom line, The employee owner concept asserts that the integration of prudent financial management practices with principles of environmental stewardship, concern for community, labor and human rights, and corporate accountability to employee shareholders and stakeholders â€“ which in the present are not considered relevant by the financial decision-making process of the botton lined focused professional investers. These outside investors with no other relationship to the company or employee, other than ownership of its stock, tends to constitute in-fact a single bottom line concept. In order to guarantee long term sustainability, to minimize long and short term financial risk, the definition of fiduciary responsibility has to evolve to a more comprehensive view of all aspects concerning the true value of a corporation. NOT JUST THE BOTTOM LINE. Thank you for your time. Any comments may be sent to Wylie Axford propawn@otelco.net
from: Wylie Axford	on: 11-19-2008 12:00AM I Agree (0) - I Disagree (0)

Former Harry's Supermarket Under Construction for Restaurant

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
08:30AM / Tuesday, June 09, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Construction is underway to transform the former Harry's Supermarket into a restaurant.

Late last month, the Conservation Commission greenlit some tree pruning on the property. New windows and a new door can be seen in the front of the building.

"It's a substantial renovation that's currently underway here," Brent White of White Engineering said, speaking on behalf of the applicant and owner, Huajie Zhu.

A fire gutted the longtime Wahconah Street supermarket in 2023, and the following year, Zhu purchased the property for $460,000 two years ago to build a restaurant with hibachi in the existing footprint of the more than 100-year-old building.

White explained that the project has been ongoing for over a year, and the Community Development Board granted the property a waiver to reduce the minimum required number of parking spaces so that additional spaces aren't needed.

He noted that, looking at the site plan, there is very little room to do so. A mirror will be installed near the sharp turn on Bel Air Avenue to alleviate traffic concerns.

Pruning will be done on trees in the southeast corner of the existing paved parking lot, as a number of branches are hanging over. The new owners also intend to patch, sealcoat, and re-stripe the parking lot.

A fire tore through the building less than an hour after the supermarket closed for the day three years ago. An automatic sprinkler system is required for the new use.