International House made history on Thursday, April 7, 2016, when, for the first time, all four living Chairs of the
U.S. Federal Reserve Bank gathered together for a public discussion. “When the Federal Reserve Speaks…The World Listens” was a live panel discussion where former Chairs
Alan Greenspan,
Paul Volcker and
Ben Bernanke joined current Chair
Janet Yellen in
Davis Hall. The at-capacity audience included Residents, Alumni, Trustees and luminaries from New York’s diverse business communities, and the event received unprecedented media coverage from outlets around the world. The panel was moderated by
CNN international affairs expert and I-House Trustee
Fareed Zakaria. The discussion ranged from the pressures faced in making difficult decisions that have global impact, to the values espoused by each Chair in doing so, to how they faced the impact of their decisions.
“What’s it like to be the Chairman? You’ve got a board, you’ve got a public, you’ve got Reserve Bank presidents…You can’t exactly do what you want without a lot of people being encouraged to agree with you. And some of them sometimes disagree. So it’s not quite so absolute…” – Paul Volcker
I-House Residents played a special role as the exclusive audience members invited to ask questions of the panelists. “What is the Fed’s responsibility with regards to minimizing economic turmoil in other countries?”asked
Murat Bilgincan, a resident from
Turkey studying
Financial Journalism at
Columbia University. Alan Greenspan responded,“Even though statutorily and legally we are responsible only for the monetary policy of the United States, it would be foolish to believe that we can act in an isolated manner from the rest of the world…there’s no way that can happen, and especially in recent years where the integration globally has been so extraordinary.” In addition to being one of the highlights of the Residents’ spring programming, this historic event also served as the launch of the
Paul A. Volcker Speaker Program, a series of talks on business and economics to be held at International House. Volcker served as Chair of the
Board of Trustees for I-House from 1998-2012 and continues to actively serve as an Honorary Trustee. Event sponsors included
Morgan Stanley,
JP Morgan Chase and Co.,
BCG Henderson Institute,
Peter G. Petersen,
UBS and
BNY Mellon. Proceeds from the event will support Resident scholarships that will help I-House maintain the socioeconomic and cultural diversity that is so essential to the experience it provides.
