50th Annual Meeting Will Focus on Global Economic Forces

As NABE’s founding members gathered in Philadelphia for the organization’s first annual meeting in 1959, the U.S. economy was growing at a 7 percent annual rate, inflation was running just under 2 percent, and the unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent.  Gross domestic product totaled $506 million and the nation’s population was about 178 million.

The business economists who attended, slightly fewer than 100 of them, were mainly worried about anti-trust legislation and how they fit into the management decision-making process of the corporations that employed them.  Organizers described the meeting as “a forum for the discussion of common problems.”

Today’s global economy demands a broader perspective on the most vexing issues as NABE puts the finishing touches on plans for its 50th annual meeting, set for Oct. 4-7 in Washington, D.C.

Early registration is underway for the meeting at the JW Marriott, across the street from the U.S. Treasury Department, in downtown Washington. Register by July 31 and save $50 in fees. Registration forms and details are here.

The broad scope of this year’s meeting will showcase policymakers and top private economists who will address global economic forces that will pose challenges for many years to come.  This year’s theme –“Addressing Future Economic Changes”—encompasses issues ranging from the role of free trade in controlling health care costs to “peak oil” and a global energy strategy and lessons learned from the ongoing credit crunch.

As the annual meeting’s honorary chair, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan noted in his letter to members, referring to the first annual meeting, “today the issues may be different but are no less compelling.”   A long-time NABE member who served as president in 1969-70, he is currently president of Greenspan Associates LLC.

Third Election-Year Debate Set

In keeping with its support of substantive discussion of critical economic policy issues, NABE will host its third and final pre-election debate during the annual meeting. Early afternoon on Sunday, Oct. 5, top economic advisers to presumptive Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will square off in a debate on key economic policy issues.  Douglas Holtz-Eakin is confirmed to represent McCain, and Austan Goolsbee has been invited to represent Obama.

Moderators for the debate will be Judy Woodruff, the Newshour with Jim Lehrer, and Steve Liesman, CNBC.

Back by popular demand, the meeting will offer networking opportunities and small group dinners at leading restaurants in the nations’ capital.  Receptions are planned at two special venues:  the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China with host Ambassador Wenzhong Zhou and at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation with host Sheila Bair, chairman of the FDIC.

Chairman Bernanke To Share View from Fed

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will offer the view from the central bank at a time of critical importance as new regulatory functions evolve and Congress debates options for reform. His luncheon address is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 7.

Other headliners include: Edward Lazear, chairman, President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers; Sheila Bair, chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Peter Orszag, director, Congressional Budget Office; and Lawrence Summers, former U.S Treasury secretary and currently a professor at Harvard University, where he served as president from 2001-2006.

Michael Mussa, Peterson Institute for International Economics, will receive the Adam Smith Award, NABE’s highest honor, and deliver the Adam Smith address the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 7.  

William R. Bell and Robert M. Groves, recipients of the 2008 Julius Shiskin Memorial Award for Economic Statistics, will also be honored at the annual meeting. Bell is a senior mathematical statistician at the U.S. Census Bureau and Groves is director of the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. [Profiles of the honorees will appear in the August issue of NABE News.]

Two NABE Fellows have been named for 2008:  NABE President Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, Ford Motor Company, and NABE Foundation Board Chairman Jack Kleinhenz, Kleinhenz & Associates in Cleveland.  They will be honored at the annual meeting.  As outgoing president, Hughes-Cromwick will give the 50th annual President’s Address.  Newly elected officers and members of the Board of Directors will take office at the end of the annual meeting. [See article in this issue on the election slate and balloting through July 7 ]

Taking the Longer View on Globalization

Organizers of the annual meeting have lined up prominent private experts as well as top policymakers to “take the longer view on the many aspects of globalization,” noted NABE Board Member Lynn Reaser, chair of the annual meeting organizing committee. She is chief economist of Bank of America’s Investment Strategies Group. Topics covered include prospects for free trade, labor markets, competitiveness of countries, and income trends among Americans, she added.

Rich Brown, a member of the organizing committee, pointed out that there will be sessions on the credit crises and the likely outcome of legislation that would tighten rules and draw new boundaries for regulatory agencies. He is the chief economist of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
“We tried to identify big forces affecting the United States and the global economy over the next several decades,” said Kevin Kliesen, a member of the organizing committee and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Skills Sessions Kick Off Meeting

The annual meeting will open with two skills sessions:  one on “Financial Engineering” with Erik Heitfield of the Federal Reserve Board, focusing on complex financial instruments that are traded in markets; and the other on “Professional Presence and Nonverbal Communications” with consultant Kay Wortman on how to “package your product, yourself, and make a great first impression.”

“These are really value-added sessions for members,” Brown said.  In their evaluations of recent annual meetings, members give high marks to skills sessions, as they offer more personal skills training to round out the schedule of keynote speakers and concurrent sessions packed with details of the latest trends and projections.

Other confirmed speakers include:  Robert Hall, Stanford University and chairman of the NBER’s Business Cycle Dating Committee, who will discuss the NBER’s criteria for calling peaks and troughs of the business cycle; John Lipskey, International Monetary Fund, who will discuss challenges to the global economy from the IMF’s perspective; and Lawrence Kotlikoff, Boston University, on the long-term fiscal outlook.

Also featuring prominent speakers, the concurrent sessions will focus on the U.S. manufacturing renaissance, innovation and its measurement, human capital over the longer run, challenges to economic growth in China and India, and the role of free trade in controlling health care costs.  Other general sessions will feature the latest NABE outlook survey, and a Nobel panel on globalization.

Travel Information

For reservations at the JW Marriott, 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, call 800-393-2503 or 202-393-2000 and mention NABE to receive the special room rate.  The room block cut-off date is Sept. 12; early registration is recommended as hotel rooms in Washington fill rapidly at this time of year.

Find registration forms and details of the meeting at: http://nabe.com/am2008/index.html
Watch for the meeting brochure in the mail.