Brett Milano
Harvard Correspondent
Harvard Gazette

Speaking at Harvard Law School, U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D., Mass.) called Monday for a new national economic agenda based on “moral capitalism” that addresses the needs of embattled workers.

In recent months, Kennedy has been pushing for a fresh economic sensibility. Speaking at the John T. Dunlop Forum on the topic of “Building a Moral Capitalism,” he argued that the recent federal government shutdown represented capitalism at its least moral.

By Jon Chesto
Boston Globe

Joe Kennedy started his push for “moral capitalism” by urging local business leaders to help address the country’s worsening income inequality.

Now, the congressman is spelling out his ideas for how the federal government should tackle the problem.

The Massachusetts Democrat spoke to a packed room at Harvard Law School on Monday, making his plea for a government unafraid to set new rules for a fair and just economy. Strong regulations, he argues, shouldn’t be viewed as an obstacle to growth but as a necessary condition for a functioning capitalist system to survive. From his point of view, government has been complicit in the erosion of workers’ rights.... Read more about Joe Kennedy preaches ‘moral capitalism’ at Harvard Law

Harvard Law Today
Alumni Focus

Tom Perez keynote speaker at John T. Dunlop Memorial Forum Lecture at Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School on February 5, 2018.

"It took decades to lay the foundations for the social compact that flourished in post-war America and created enormous, shared wealth. It could take far less to roll back all the gains that were made, warned Tom Perez M.P.P./J.D. ’87, former Secretary of Labor under President Obama and the current chair of the Democratic National Committee."

“I’m a firm believer that when workers feel like they have a stake in where they’re working, they’re happier and they’re more productive, and it’s win-win,” he said. Perez termed it the John Dunlop theory of governance, after the late Harvard School professor and former Secretary of Labor under President Gerald Ford for whom the lecture is named, “because when you build a big table and give everyone a meaningful seat at the table, you can get really good outcomes.”... Read more about Former Labor Secretary Perez says everyone should have a seat at the table