Yesterday afternoon, the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs hosted a roundtable discussion on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ pastoral letter, “Economic Justice for All,” in light of the document’s 25th anniversary. Discussing the relevance of the letter both in its original context and that of the present, the focus of the panel turned to the role of America’s Catholic bishops in today’s social, political, and economic realms.

The panelists were E.J. Dionne, a professor at Georgetown’s Public Policy Institute and a columnist for the Washington Post, Ross Douthat, an Op-Ed columnist with the New York Times, Christine Firer Hinze, a professor of Christian ethics at Fordham University and the director of the Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, and Rev. Robert Sirico, a Roman Catholic priest and founder and president of the Acton Institute. Professor Tom Banchoff, the director of the Berkley Center, moderated the roundtable.

The pastoral letter, written in 1986, focused on Catholic Social Teaching and how its core principles of the common good, the universal destination of goods and solidarity interact with America’s capitalist system. In five chapters, the letter critiques the American economy both by acknowledging its achievements and highlighting its shortcomings. The most discussed and criticized chapter is the third, which is an analysis of the American economy that offers specific policy proposals in regards to unemployment, poverty, food and agriculture distribution, and international development.

The speakers at yesterday’s discussion centered the conversation on the bishops’ authority to make policy suggestions. While all panelists agreed on what Douthat referred to as the bishops’ “policy naiveté,” they disagreed about the extent to which the bishops overstepped in their pastoral letter.

Although the letter created room for important dialogue concerning the role of moral values in the marketplace, it seemed apparent to all that the bishops risked what ecclesiastical authority they had in making specific suggestions that fell flat. According to Douthat, “Well-meaning public policy isn’t effective public policy.”

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On Friday afternoon, former President Bill Clinton (SFS ‘68) spoke at Gaston Hall, and reflected on the current economic and political state of the country. His speech was part of the “Clinton-Gore Economics: Understanding the Lessons of the 1990s” symposium, which highlighted economic successes that the speakers attributed to the Clinton administration’s policies and leadership.

The symposium consisted of two panel discussions in addition to Clinton’s keynote speech. The panelists, including top officials and political players during the Clinton administration, addressed the 1993 budget battle and how the Clinton administration treated education, technology, transportation, and other issues within the larger economic plan. They also highlighted the important role that investment played during his administration.

The panelists and the former president also spoke about the country’s balanced budget during his second term, as well as the drops in unemployment numbers and number of people on welfare during his administration, the latter of which decreased from 14.1 million to 5.6 million. They argued that the administration’s policies played a measurable role in changing the economic state in which the country had been during the previous decate.

Clinton, however, noted that the policies made during his administration were not prescriptive. “As you look at the problems that the President faces today, the members of Congress face today, I would like to first state the obvious,” he said. “The particular solution we pursued is not appropriate to this particular moment because the problem is different.”

However, he did say that some of the philosophies that shaped the policies under his administration remain relevant today.

“Abraham Lincoln said that in America, it was good to have wealthy people because it fostered innovation and creativity and effort in the rest of us,” Clinton said. “On the other hand, as an economic matter, we all need to pitch in and do what we can so that those of us who had all of the gains of the last decade [and in the 1980s], just as I did, should make a contribution. That’s a contribution we can make.”

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All you do-gooder econ and finance students out there, get excited: two Georgetown students—Brian Gallagher (MSB ’10) and Ben Sacher (SFS ’12)—are starting a microfinance club.

The idea behind microfinance is that giving small loans to entrepreneurs in impoverished communities who are too poor to get traditional loans from banks.

Gallagher explained how Georgetown Microfinance would operate in an e-mail:

The club will focus on promoting microfinance and providing loans to entrepreneurs both locally and in developing countries. Our core activity is to provide micro loans to entrepreneurs by building and managing a student run evergreen micro loan fund. Once the entrepreneur?s new business is successful, they will repay the loan allowing the fund to continue to grow and positively affect an increasing number of individuals each year.

The club just got approval from the Center for Social Justice earlier this week.

Gallagher says they are planning to raise money for the fund through donations, letter writing campaigns, social events, the sale of fair trade goods on campus and other fundraisers.  He also says they will be working with other campus groups and the local branch of Grameen Bank, the bank started by Nobel Prize-winning economist and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus.