Auerbach
helps organize conference
on Federal Reserve responsibilities
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Professor Robert Auerbach calls the Federal Reserve system "the most important peacetime government bureaucracy in the United States." He advocates congressional restrictions that would prevent the shredding of Federal Reserve meeting transcripts. Photo by Doug Marshall |
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Federal Reserve experts examined the responsibilities of the system that serves as the central bank of the United States during a conference held in January at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Called "Federal Reserve: Myth vs. Reality," the conference was organized to discuss issues that affect not only Americans but also people all over the world. Topics included media coverage of the Federal Reserve as well as waste and abuse within the Federal Reserve.
LBJ School faculty members who participated in the event were Professor Robert D. Auerbach, one of two conference coordinators, and Professor James K. Galbraith, who spoke about the state of the national economy during a keynote luncheon address.
During the conference, Auerbach--a former chief economist for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services--presented evidence about the shredding of Federal Reserve meeting transcripts in 1994, 1995, and 1996 and spoke about his current petition to Congress that a law be passed against such actions. He also interviewed two former Federal Reserve employees and their attorney who are currently engaged in a class action suit against the Federal Reserve for alleged racial discrimination against African American women.The conference was sponsored by the Center for Study of Responsive Law, a Ralph Nader organization that supports and conducts research and educational projects to encourage U.S. institutions to be more aware of the needs of the citizen-consumer.
Among the participants were William Grieder, a journalist and the author of Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country, a widely acclaimed book on the inner workings of the Federal Reserve; Tom Schlesinger, director of the Financial Markets Center, which conducts and publishes major research on the Federal Reserve; and Jeff Faux, president of the Economic Policy Institute. Other speakers included economists, financial experts, writers, editors, and representatives of community organizations that monitor the Federal Reserve's performance on fair lending and the Community Reinvestment Act.
The seven-hour conference proceedings were broadcast live by C-SPAN and later posted for several weeks on C-SPAN's web site.
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May 13, 2002
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