June 24, 2025: WACC Partner Program with Ian Kumekawa, Historian of Economic Thinking and Capitalism at the Center for History and Economics at Harvard University, Lecturer at MIT, and Author of “Empty Vessel: The Story of the Global Economy in One Barge” (Virtual)

WACC Partner Program: World Affairs Council of Connecticut and Global Santa Fe (FREE PROGRAM)

Join us June 24th to hear Harvard scholar and economic historian Ian Kumekawa tell the history of the global economy through a single barge that throughout the 20th century served as a floating prison, military barracks, housing for migrant workers, serviced offshore oil rigs, and anything else the market demanded.

Ian Kumekawa joins us on WorldNow with Jim Falk to explore the making and offshoring of the modern global economy – from mass incarceration, tax havens, and fossil fuel extraction to military power and deregulation. We’ll also discuss what the story reveals about the global economy today and the current administration’s increased use of offshore prisons, tariffs, and economic nationalism.

Date: June 10, 2025
Time: 7:00 – 7:30 PM EDT
Cost: Free
Via Zoom*

*Zoom links will be sent to all registrants via email

Purchase the book “Empty Vessel: The Story of the Global Economy in One Barge” — Link

Presented in partnership with the Alaska World Affairs Council, Colorado Springs World Affairs Council, Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, World Affairs Council of Albuquerque, World Affairs Council of Austin, World Affairs Council of Charlotte, World Affairs Council of Greater Houston, World Affairs Council of Hampton Roads, World Affairs Council of Jacksonville, World Affairs Council of Orange County, World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts, and WorldOregon.

 

 

 

Biography: 

Speaker: U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT)

Ian Kumekawa is a historian of economic thinking and capitalism at the Center for History and Economics at Harvard University and a Lecturer at MIT. He is the author of The First Serious Optimist (2017), which examines the intellectual origins of welfare economics (2017), which won the Joseph J. Spengler Prize. He hails from Clinton, CT and now lives in Boston. Learn more about Ian here.

Moderator: Jim Falk

Jim Falk is President Emeritus of the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. Now residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico he is member of the Board of Global Santa Fe where he chairs the program committee. Jim co-hosts Perspectives Matter, a McCuistion Program, that airs weekly on KERA-Dallas (PBS). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.