Press Releases
Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
202-226-7616
10/13/2008
Pelosi Remarks at Opening of Economic Forum
Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke briefly to reporters at the top of an economic forum being held in her office this morning with House Democratic leaders and economic experts. Below are the Speaker’s remarks:
“Thank you all very much for being here. Our country is at a very challenging moment and we need the best thinking in our country to address those concerns – concerns of the American people, taxpayers, workers, homeowners. We need to address the stability of our markets, the stability of our economy. And I am so pleased that we have so many leaders and thinkers in the field with us today.
“Each and every one of these people who are here today will take us to a new place in our thinking on how we can protect the taxpayers, create jobs, stabilize our economy and the markets, and do so in a way that is fair to the American people.”
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In addition to the Democratic Members of Congress, the following experts attended the forum:
Governor Chet Culver – Governor Chet Culver began his career as an environmental and consumer advocate in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. After receiving his Master of Arts in Teaching at Drake University, he taught government and history at Roosevelt High School and Hoover High School in Des Moines, where he also coached both football and basketball. As a teacher and a coach, Governor Culver drew on his experiences playing both sports in high school and playing football on scholarship at Virginia Tech. In 1998, Governor Culver was elected as Iowa’s 29th Secretary of State and the youngest Secretary of State in the nation and was re-elected to the position in 2002. Governor Culver was elected Governor of Iowa in 2006.
Jared Bernstein – Dr. Bernstein joined the Economic Policy Institute in 1992. His latest book is "Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)," which follows "All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy." His areas of research include income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, low-wage labor markets and poverty, international comparisons, and the analysis of federal and state economic policies. He is the co-author of eight editions of the book “The State of Working America” and has published extensively in popular and academic venues, including The New York Times, Washington Post, American Prospect, and Research in Economics and Statistics. He is also a contributor to the financial news station CNBC.
Doug Elmendorf – Dr. Elmendorf a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program at Brookings. Dr. Elmendorf is the Edward M. Bernstein Scholar, serves as co-editor of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, and is the director of the Hamilton Project, an initiative that develops policy proposals to achieve shared economic growth. His areas of expertise are macroeconomics, the financial system, public economics, and fiscal policy. Elmendorf was previously an assistant professor at Harvard University, a principal analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, a deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department, and an assistant director of the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve Board.
William R. Hambrecht – In 1968, Mr. Hambrecht co-founded Hambrecht & Quist, an investment banking firm specializing in emerging high-growth technology companies. He founded WR Hambrecht and Co. in 1998, introducing OpenIPO as a means to level the playing field for both investors and issuers. Mr. Hambrecht has served as a director for numerous private and public companies. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for The American University of Beirut and is on the Advisory Investment Committee to the Board of Regents of the University of California.
Robert Kuttner – Mr. Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect magazine, as well as a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the think tank Demos. He was a longtime columnist for Business Week, and continues to write columns in the Boston Globe. The Squandering of America, exploring the political roots of America's narrowing prosperity and the systemic financial risks facing the U.S. economy, is his seventh book. He has begun work on a new book on trade, equality, efficiency, and the challenge of regulating global capitalism. Bob’s best-known earlier book is Everything for Sale: the Virtues and Limits of Markets (1997). His previous books on economics and politics include; The End of Laissez-Faire (1991); The Life of the Party (1987); The Economic Illusion (1984); and Revolt of the Haves (1980). His other positions have included national staff writer on the Washington Post, chief investigator of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and economics editor of The New Republic. He has taught at Brandeis, Boston University, the University of Massachusetts, and Harvard’s Institute of Politics.
Arthur Levitt – Chairman Levitt joined The Carlyle Group in May 2001 as a Senior Advisor to the firm. He advises Carlyle management on strategic business matters. Prior to joining Carlyle, Chairman Levitt was the 25th Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. First appointed by President Clinton in July 1993, the President reappointed Chairman Levitt to a second five-year term in May 1998. In September 1999, he became the longest-serving Chairman of the Commission. He left the Commission in February 2001. Investor protection was Chairman Levitt's top priority. Throughout his tenure at the Commission, he worked to educate, empower and protect America’s investors. Before joining the Commission, Chairman Levitt owned Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. From 1989 to 1993, he served as the Chairman of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and from 1978 to 1989, he was the Chairman of the American Stock Exchange. Prior to joining the Amex, Mr. Levitt worked for 16 years on Wall Street.
Alice M. Rivlin – Dr. Rivlin is a visiting professor at the Public Policy Institute of Georgetown University and a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at Brookings. She directs Brookings Greater Washington Research. Before returning to Brookings, Ms. Rivlin served as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board (1996-99). She was director of the White House Office of Management and Budget in the first Clinton Administration. She also chaired the District of Columbia Financial Management Assistance Authority. Dr. Rivlin was the founding director of the Congressional Budget Office (1975-83). She was director of the Economic Studies Program at Brookings. She also served at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Dr. Rivlin received a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship, taught at Harvard, George Mason, and The New School Universities, has served on the Boards of Directors of several corporations, and as President of the American Economic Association. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange.
Allen Sinai – Dr. Sinai is Chief Global Economist and President of Decision Economics, Inc. (PDE). Dr. Sinai is the developer of The Sinai-Boston Large-Scale Quarterly Macroeconometric Model of the U.S., one of the largest, most accurate, models of the U.S. economy and financial markets. Previously, Dr. Sinai was Chief Global Economist and a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers Inc., and the Director of Lehman Brothers Global Economics. Dr. Sinai served as Executive Vice President and Chief Economist of the Boston Company, and headed The Boston Company Economic Advisors, Inc. Before joining Lehman Brothers, Dr. Sinai was at Data Resources, Inc. (DRI), as Chief Financial Economist and a Senior Vice President. He also served as Chairman of the Financial Information Group.
Joseph E. Stiglitz – Dr. Stiglitz has taught at Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT and was the Drummond Professor and a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He is now University Professor at Columbia University in New York and Chair of Columbia University's Committee on Global Thought. He is also the co-founder and Executive Director of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information, and he was a lead author of the 1995 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Stiglitz was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1993-95, during the Clinton administration, and served as CEA chairman from 1995-97. He then became Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank from 1997-2000. In 2008, he was appointed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to chair a Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Economic Progress.
Lawrence H. Summers – Secretary Summers is Charles W. Eliot University Professor at the Harvard University Kennedy School. Prior to his current position, Secretary Summers served as the 27th president of Harvard University. Under President Clinton he was the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury following his earlier service as Deputy and Under Secretary of the Treasury and as Chief Economist of the World Bank. Prior to his service in Washington, Secretary Summers was a professor of economics at Harvard and MIT. He is a member of the National Academy of Science. Among his other activities, Secretary Summers writes a monthly column for the Financial Times, co-edits the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, and serves as a managing director of D. E. Shaw, a major alternative investment firm. He also serves on a number of not-for-profit and for-profit boards.
Laura Tyson – Dr. Tyson is currently a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkley. She is a former Chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers under the Clinton Administration, and has served as Director of the National Economic Council. Dr. Tyson was the former Dean of the Haas School of Business from 1998-2001 and from 2002-2006 she was the Dean of the London Business School. Dr. Tyson has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1987, a Director of Morgan Stanley since 1997, a Director of AT&T Inc since 1999 and a Director of Eastman Kodak. Dr. Tyson regularly writes about domestic and international economic policy matters in The Washington Post, The New York Times and other nationally and internationally syndicated newspapers and magazines.