Press Releases
Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
202-226-7616
12/07/2007
Pelosi Comments on Economic Forum This Morning
“Good morning, thank you all for coming.”
“This has been a very special morning for us. We had the benefit of the thinking of some of
the best minds in
“We began with raising the minimum wage to make sure that
the prosperity of our country was shared by many more people. We passed into law, signed by the President,
the COMPETES Act, our Innovation Agenda.
Our commitment to competitiveness, to keep America Number One. To grow businesses and keep good paying jobs
in
“We held this forum this morning because of our concern
about the effect of what’s happening in the economy to ordinary people in our
country, who feel the impact of economic change directly and immediately. I’m so pleased that we had a range of
participants this morning. From former
Secretary of the Treasury, Larry Summers, the former ambassador to France and
great leader in the finance community in New York, Ambassador Felix Rohatyn, to
the President of AFL-CIO, with representatives of business, the private sector,
and academic world. The members of the
Democratic House leadership, uncharacteristically sat silently by and listened
to the wisdom of those we heard and then, of course, we did have
questions.
“In the discussion, we were led by the very distinguished
and able Chairman of the Financial Services Committee of the House of
Representatives, Barney Frank. We take
pride in his leadership and the respect that he commands for the knowledge of
these issues and the commitment to all of the American people and the knowledge
of the impact of the economy on them.”
* * *
Outside participants at the forum were:
Jane D’Arista – Ms. D’Arista is the Director of Programs for
the
Laurence D. Fink – Mr. Fink is the Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of BlackRock. Prior to
founding BlackRock in 1988, he was a member of the Management Committee and a
Managing Director of The First Boston Corporation.
William Hambrecht – Mr. Hambrecht is the founder and CEO of
WR Hambrecht & Company, an investment company headquartered in
Eugene A. Ludwig - Mr. Ludwig is the Founder and CEO of
Promontory Group, a suite of companies offering products and services to assist
banks and other financial businesses.
Prior to founding Promontory, he was Vice Chairman and Senior Control
Officer of Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank.
Felix G. Rohatyn – Since 2006, Ambasssador Rohatyn has
served as the Senior Adviser to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lehman
Brothers Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. During the 1970s, he was the
chair of
Lewis A. (Lee) Sachs – Mr. Sachs is a partner of Mariner
Investment Group where he is Chairman of the Investment Committee. Prior to joining Mariner, he was CEO of
Cornerstone Asset Management and until 2003, Vice Chairman of Perseus LLC, a
merchant bank and private equity fund management firm. Mr. Sachs also served in the Clinton
Administration as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets.
Allen Sinai – Mr. Sinai is the Founder, Chief Global
Economist, and President of Decision Economics, Inc. (PDE), a global economic
and financial advisory firm. He is also an adjunct professor of Economics and
Finance in the Lemberg Program of International Economics and Finance at
Bill Spriggs – Mr. Spriggs is the Chair of the Department of
Economics at
Larry Summers – Mr. Summers served as Treasury Secretary
under President Clinton (1999-2001). He is also President Emeritus of
John J. Sweeney – Mr. Sweeney is the President of the
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
(AFL-CIO). Prior to AFL-CIO, he served
as President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). His trade union career began as a research
assistant with the Ladies Garment Workers.