News Release

October 25, 2005

Media Contact: (202) 789-5200

Treasury Secretary, IMF Director and Federal Reserve Vice Chairman to Speak at Cato

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, John Snow, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Rodrigo Rato, and Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Roger W. Ferguson Jr., lead the roster of prominent speakers and policymakers at the Cato Institute's 23rd annual monetary conference, "Monetary Institutions and Economic Development."

The conference on Thursday, November 3rd at the Cato Institute is co-sponsored by The Economist and will address the conduct of monetary policy in the post-Greenspan era, as well as the serious challenges confronting policymakers, from growing trade and currency imbalances to protectionism. Rato will deliver a keynote address, "The Role of Institutions," to start the conference. Recently, the IMF has been at the center of a debate about what its role should be in trying to resolve global trade imbalances.

The U.S. Treasury Secretary will be speaking to the conference shortly after he returns from participating in the G20 conference in China. And Ferguson will be addressing the conference at a time of rising fears about the burgeoning U.S. budget deficit. Other issues to be explored by the conference include:

• Monetary Credibility and Sustainable Development
• Financial Market Liberalization and Economic Development
• Emerging Markets, Debt, and the Dollar

Samuel Brittan, renowned Economics Columnist for the Financial Times, will close with a talk on "Why the Dollar needs Benign Neglect." William A. Niskanen, chairman of the Cato Institute, Mickey Levy, chief economist at Bank of America, and Kenneth Rogoff, former research director at the IMF and now at Harvard University, will be among the participants.

The event is free to working members of the media. Pre-registration is encouraged and can be completed online here or by emailing monetary@cato.org. If unable to attend, watch the conference on or after November 3rd. Please direct all non-registration questions to the Cato media relations department at 202-789-5200 or media@cato.org.