August 21, 2006
hp-65

Remarks of Anna Escobedo Cabral
U.S. Treasurer
U.S. Department of the Treasury

Before Senator Grassley’s 2006 Women’s Conference

Des Moines, Iowa- Thanks very much for that kind introduction.  It is a pleasure to be in Des Moines today. 

My special thanks go out to Senator Grassley, his lovely wife Barbara, as well as his staff for this invitation and warm hospitality.  Also, sir, congratulations on your arduous work in helping move forward comprehensive pension legislation through the Senate.  Efforts such as these will certainly help create an added incentive for employees, and particularly women from all walks of life, to save more and plan for retirement.  That is so important! After all, women are so often the nurturers of the home and the key breadwinner.

I actually want to talk to the women in the audience today about the amazing opportunity we find before us as we have see our economy grow, particularly over the past 37 months.  And I want to talk to you about fantastic resources you can tap into that are available to you through various federal government sources.

But first, I want to tell you a little bit about my background and why these issues are of such great importance to me personally.

Quite frankly, when I first went away to college, I was one of just a few Latino students at my school, and really the first in my family to pursue an undergraduate education.  You see, my family was of very humble means, and although my parents had a very big heart and watched over us children very well, I didn't really even think about attending college at first.  It was thanks to a high school teacher, Mr. Lamm, that I was able to apply for college and find the scholarship dollars necessary to fund my education.

Back then I was deeply troubled that many did not get the chance at the same opportunity I did. 

But now, I can do something about it.  So I try.  And I ask for your help and too.  I ask you to try – either by mentoring a young student or by simply doing what you're doing now for your communities. 

As young or well-established businesswomen and professionals, you are in an ideal position to really serve as a role model for a student or a young professional.  Quite frankly, your inspiration, your story, can really make the point of what is possible. I want to commend each and every person here in this room today – many of you are leaders in your communities and your service is truly commendable. 

As President Bush underscores, it is imperative that we encourage more students, including young women, to think about pursuing careers in mathematics and science.  We need to increase the number of female representation in various careers – particularly in technology, science and finance. 

The American economy needs our girls. We've moved from an industrial to a now highly technical marketplace.  And in the next five to 10 years we are expecting a wave of people to retire from the federal government.  We need to ensure that young professionals are equipped to meet the demands of a new competitive marketplace. 

Competitiveness is a priority for President Bush. He has created the American Competitiveness Initiative to keep America the most innovative and competitive economy in the world.  While this initiative will encourage more aggressive investment by businesses in research and development, increase Federal support for vital basic research, and improve math and science education for America's students, professional women must ensure that female students do not pass up these opportunities to develop their talent and ready themselves for the jobs of today and tomorrow.

But first, we must convince our children, our girls in particular, that they must invest in themselves.  And we must invest in them, in our communities and in our nation. 

The most important way to make this investment is by supporting sound financial policies advanced by our government and by making wise personal finance choices as individuals.  Along that vein, I want to share with you just how this Administration, this President and Treasury are focused on these same goals on a large scale.  Because many of you here likely are owners of your own business (or hope to do so some day), you probably share the President's view regarding just how important it is to promote sound and pro-growth economic policies, including immigration reform and financial education initiatives to improve levels of financial literacy across the country.

When we talk about growth and our economy – we luckily already have a tremendous start.

One of the favorite parts of my job as U.S. Treasurer is to visit different cities across the country and speak to fantastic groups like this one.  But I must confess that I like this part of my job even more when I get to be the bearer of good news. 

Quite frankly, I think the President and his economic team have certainly made this part of my job much easier because I have always been in the messenger for fantastic economic news ever since I first assumed my job as 42^nd Treasurer of the U.S.  Even before that!

In fact, today I am happy to report that more than 5.5 million jobs have been created since August of 2003 and we see that our economy still continues to grow at a steady pace.  In the month of July 2006 alone, an additional 113,000 jobs were created in the U.S. 

Additionally, in just the past 12 months, the economy has created more than 1.7 million new jobs.  The unemployment rate still remains below the average of each of the past three decades.  We're also seeing a wage pick up across the country.

Much of the economic momentum we've experienced in recent years can be explained by the President's firm commitment to promoting a pro-growth economic agenda.  The resilience and strength of the U.S. economy is a fact – and this is true despite many of the recent and significant unforeseen challenges our country faced since the President first came into office – the effects of the tech stock market bubble burst, the monstrous 9/11 terrorist attacks on our soil and the devastation experienced by regions impacted by the Gulf Coast hurricanes in 2005.

The President's economic team nonetheless is focused on furthering policies which encourage enhanced opportunities for businesses to expand, as well as hire more workers to meet increased customer demands.

Thanks to the President's tax cuts, people are keeping more of the money they make. But these policies have also helped the federal government increase its tax revenue. 

To put the strength and resilience of our economy into perspective, it may be useful to draw some comparisons.  Consider that the U.S. economy is the fastest growing of any major industrialized nation in the world.  Productivity is growing at the highest rate in years.  In 2005, our economy grew faster than Japan and more than twice as fast as France.  It also grew more than three-times as fast as Germany.

One important explanation for this resilient and growing economy, again, is that we left more to businesses to invest by lowering their tax burden.  It's about simple economics – when you allow people to keep more of their own money, they have more money to invest, and more of it to start or expand a business, or to pay for other important things like a college education or a purchase of a first home. 

I can assure you, that the President and his economic team will remain focused on furthering those proven and time-tested policies which encourage the innovator, the entrepreneur and the investor to dare believe in what's possible, in their own abilities and pursue dreams for a more fruitful future. 

Nonetheless, increased opportunity requires increased preparation and education.  We must be realistic – we can not expect that the government will solve all our problems – and we can't expect it to make money for us.  We've got to do it for ourselves – and we have to create our own opportunities.  Doing so will require that individuals, particularly those in our respective communities, acquire the necessary skills necessary to manage their money wisely and invest it intelligently.

I earlier mentioned the importance of improving personal finance knowledge for all people across the country.  Although our economy continues to grow, we still have much work ahead of us to improve financial education.

This challenge could be attributed to a complex and burgeoning economy like ours, which creates more choices and sophisticated vehicles for saving and making one's money grow.  But often, it can also be attributed to lack of knowledge about available opportunities and resources.

When we talk about financial education in today's terms, what we're really talking about is improving people's quality of life. 

Education requires more than just presenting information in a nice neat package.  We find that we can have a greater impact when this information is delivered through trusted channels.  And, this sort of education in which we're all engaged in is really about helping to create new opportunities for people – opportunities like paying for a child's college education, purchasing a home, starting a business or planning for a secure retirement.

That is why Treasury has strengthened its commitment to helping people understand the value of establishing a relationship with a traditional financial institution and improve their financial literacy skills; and we are engaged in several campaigns and multi-agency efforts to improve financial education across the country. 

I'll highlight just a few ways in which we're doing this.  First, we're deeply involved in improving financial literacy through the work of a federal commission – The Financial Literacy and Education Commission.  The Commission is led by the Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson, and it recently released a strategy to improve financial education during Financial Literacy Month, in April of 2006. 

As President Bush recently noted, The Financial Literacy and Education Commission has an important role to play in helping citizens gain the knowledge and tools they need to compete and succeed in the 21^st century. 

I just want to spend a few more minutes telling you about it, because as leaders in your community, I know you will find this of interest.  This Commission was created in 2003, and the twenty agencies that form it were tasked with developing a plan to improve the money management skills of people in the U.S.  The Commission was also tasked with developing a federal financial education web site and toll-free hotline, which were launched in English and Spanish in October of 2004 – MyMoney.gov and 1-888-MyMoney.  And very soon, the Commission will turn its attention to developing a multimedia campaign addressing financial education needs in the U.S.  Since the strategy addressing the campaign has just been completed, the work on this campaign is just in its earliest phase.

The web site and hotline offer an amazing array of financial education tools in English and Spanish to help you, your family and your clients obtain basic information to help them make wise personal finance decisions – whether their current interest is in saving, investing, paying for a college education, purchasing a first-time home or even starting a business.  All this information is easily accessible in this one-stop shop – these resources and the strategy I mentioned earlier are all accessible at www.mymoney.gov.  I encourage you to visit it, and even add the link to your resources list on your web sites!

I think that in your line of work and given your level of commitment to your respective communities, you will also find the information in the national strategy very useful.  The strategy is really a blue print – it is a first step.  However, it is a significant first step toward addressing the issue of tackling the challenge of assisting the more than 10 million individuals that are currently "unbanked" or who do not have a relationship with a traditional financial institution.

Just to give you a quick overview of the strategy: the strategy looks at a variety of other important topics, such as homeownership, credit management, retirement savings, in addition to "banking the unbanked" – an issue that my office has currently been particularly focused on. 

It also describes the challenges and guideposts for possible solutions.

Sometimes the solutions come from the Federal government, but often nonprofit organizations, businesses and other private sector players provide important resources for those wishing to learn more about financial matters.

The strategy also encourages Americans to take advantage of the many tools to help them save money to buy a home as I noted earlier, properly plan for retirement or better manage their monthly household income. 

Finally, it puts forward examples of financial education programs that community leaders, business people like yourselves and volunteers can all look to as they design programs of their own to enhance financial literacy.  It will not only be important to provide encouragement – it will also be important to facilitate easier and more convenient access to tools that can help people improve personal finance management skills, and hopefully ultimately influence the adoption of good personal finance habits.  I know that through events like this one – many of you will become involved in advancing improvement in financial literacy levels across Iowa.

At the end of each chapter in the strategy, you will notice that Calls to Actions are highlighted. As a result, Treasury will be coordinating multicultural financial literacy forums to identify the needs of local communities, but also identify some of the best practices in financial education that are quite literally producing positive results.

Another very important campaign my office has been involved in, and that I very quickly want to tell you about, is the Go Direct campaign.  About a year and half ago, the Treasury and Federal Reserve Banks launched a campaign called Go Direct – in Spanish it is known as Directo A Su Cuenta.    The campaign's objective is to encourage seniors to receive their Social Security benefits by direct deposit.  

It not only communicates the importance of direct deposit – but provides the means by which seniors can make the switch from a paper check to direct deposit. We have a dedicated call center staffed by bilingual personnel ready to assist all beneficiaries.

The call center is only one of many ways we are helping beneficiaries sign up for direct deposit. Our Web sites: www.GoDirect.org and www.DirectoASuCuenta.org, allow beneficiaries to access a step-by-step online tool to sign up – either on their own or through their bank or credit union.

Direct deposit is not only the most secure way for receiving Social Security benefits; it is also the most convenient way for all beneficiaries to have immediate access to their benefits.  However, despite 95 percent of Americans having heard or read about identity theft, a survey sponsored by the U.S. Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve Banks revealed that many are unaware of the security benefits of direct deposit over paper checks. 

I urge you to help us spread the word about this fantastic resource too – especially to your clients.  Many of them are employers and could potentially serve as great partners with Treasury in this effort.  Keep in mind that direct deposit can also provide seniors receiving SSA payments with a sense of control of their money.  This is true even under the most difficult circumstances.  Again, as you know Hurricane Katrina displaced tens of thousands of beneficiaries just days before their checks arrived in the mail. In uncertain times like these, enrolling in direct deposit can offer a much needed peace of mind to federal benefit recipients. 

Thank you again for your time and attention – this has been a tremendous opportunity to make new friends.  It has been a real pleasure for me to share with you just a few of the efforts we're involved in here at Treasury and to highlight the President's priorities to keep our economy and businesses going strong.  With your help and contributions, I know we will together continue to enhance opportunities for those who seek them.

-30-