Council on Foreign Relations Establishes Commission on Future International Financial Architecture

Peterson, Hills, Goldstein, Others to Undertake Major Review of Global System

January 25, 1999 - With continuing global economic uncertainty -- spiked by the latest crisis in Brazil -- and with inconclusive debate about what needs to be done to meet these challenges, the Council on Foreign Relations announced today that it is sponsoring an independent commission on future global financial architecture. In his speech at the Council last September, President Clinton termed the present situation, "The biggest financial challenge facing the world in a half century," and called upon the Council to use its resources to help deal with this problem. "We are establishing this commission in the hopes of making a contribution to the call from President Clinton and other leaders here and around the world," said commission co-chairs Peter G. Peterson and Carla A. Hills. "Our aim is to bring a highly diverse and experienced group to basic agreement on a strategy for stabilizing the world economy and promoting growth, and then to present a plan for putting that strategy into action."

Peter G. Peterson, Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and also of The Blackstone Group, was Secretary of Commerce during the Nixon Administration. Carla A. Hills, a Council Director and Chairman and CEO of Hills & Company, was U.S. Trade Representative during the Bush Administration. Morris Goldstein, former Deputy Director of Research at the IMF and now at the Institute for International Economics, is the project director.

The group will include not only economists, bankers, and other financial experts, but also manufacturers, labor leaders, political scientists, strategists, and regional specialists. A full list of commission members is attached.

"This is one of the most important and potent groups ever put together by the Council to tackle an international problem," said Council President Leslie H. Gelb.

The commission -- highly diverse in perspective and background -- will review the substantial research done and proposals made in this area, then issue a report this summer on whether the international financial architecture should be changed, and if so, how. Though there have been several official studies done on the subject, this will be the first private, nonpartisan group to examine the issue. Council-sponsored independent commissions avoid a lowest-common-denominator conclusion by stating that signatories endorse the thrust of the report, not each individual finding. Participants are always invited to offer additional or dissenting views on specific points.

CFR Commission on the Future International Financial Architecture

(as of 1/21/99)

Chairs:

Peter G. Peterson

Carla A. Hills

Project Director:

Morris Goldstein

Commission Members:

Paul A. Allaire, Xerox Corporation

C. Fred Bergsten, Institute for International Economics

Kenneth W. Dam, University of Chicago

George David, United Technologies

Jorge I. Dominguez, Harvard University

Kenneth M. Duberstein, The Duberstein Group, Inc.

Barry J. Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley

Martin S. Feldstein, Harvard University

Maurice R. Greenberg, American International Group, Inc.

Lee H. Hamilton, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (invited)

John G. Heimann, Financial Stability Institute

Peter B. Kenen, Princeton University

Paul R. Krugman, MIT

Nicholas R. Lardy, The Brookings Institution

David Lipton, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Ray F. Marshall, University of Texas at Austin

Jacques A. Nasser, Ford Motor Company (invited)

Norman J. Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

William R. Rhodes, Citibank/Citicorp

Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

Henry B. Schacht, Lucent Technologies, Inc.

James R. Schlesinger, Lehman Brothers

George Soros, Soros Fund Management

Laura D’Andrea Tyson, University of California, Berkeley

Ezra F. Vogel, Harvard University

Paul A. Volcker

Vin Weber, Clark & Weinstock.

CFR Commission on the Future International Financial Architecture

Paul A. Allaire is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Xerox Corporation. Mr. Allaire joined Xerox in 1966.

C. Fred Bergsten has been Director of the Institute for International Economics since its creation in 1981. Dr. Bergsten served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs from 1977-81.

Kenneth W. Dam is Max Pam Professor of American and Foreign Law at the University of Chicago. Mr. Dam was Deputy Secretary of State from 1982-85.

George David is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of United Technologies Corporation. Mr. David joined Otis Elevator Company in 1975, just prior to the merger of Otis into United Technologies.

Jorge I. Domuez is Director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University. Dr. Domuez was President of the Latin American Studies Association.

Kenneth M. Duberstein is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Duberstein Group. Mr. Duberstein served as Chief of Staff to President Reagan from 1988-89.

Barry Eichengreen is John L. Simpson Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1987. Dr. Eichengreen was Senior Policy Advisor at the International Monetary Fund from 1997-98.

Martin Feldstein is George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and President of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Dr. Feldstein was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and President Reagan’s chief economic adviser from 1982-84.

Morris Goldstein is Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow in International Finance at the Institute for International Economics. Dr. Goldstein served as a staff member of the International Monetary Fund for twenty-five years, the last eight as Deputy Director of the Fund’s Research Department.

Maurice R. Greenberg is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American International Group, Inc. Mr. Greenberg is a past Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is the Vice Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Lee. H. Hamilton is Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Mr. Hamilton served as a member of Congress from the ninth district of Indiana from 1965-98, and a former Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He is a member and former Chairman on the Joint Economic Committee.

John G. Heimann is Chairman of the Financial Stability Institute, a subsidiary of the Bank of International Settlements. Mr. Heimann was Chairman of Global Financial Institutions at Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.

Carla A. Hills is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hills & Company, International Consultants. Mrs. Hills was United States Trade Representative from 1989-93.

Peter B. Kenen is Walker Professor of Economics and International Finance at Princeton University. He taught at Columbia University from 1957-71, where he was Chairman of the Department of Economics and, from 1969-70, Provost of the University.

Paul R. Krugman is Ford International Professor of Economics at MIT. Dr. Krugman was International Policy Economist for the Council of Economic Advisers from 1982-83.

Nicholas R. Lardy is Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program at the Brookings Institution and Frederick Frank Adjunct Professor of International Trade and Finance at Yale University School of Management. Dr. Lardy was Director of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington from 1991-95.

David A. Lipton is Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Global Policy Program. Mr. Lipton served in several senior positions at the Treasury Department from 1993-98, the last of which was as Under Secretary for International Affairs.

Ray Marshall is Audre and Bernard Rapoport Centennial Chair in Economics and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Marshall was Secretary of Labor from 1977-81.

Norman J. Ornstein is Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and election analyst for CBS News. In addition, Dr. Ornstein writes regularly for USA Today as a member of its Board of Contributors and writes a column called "Congress Inside Out" for Roll Call.

Peter G. Peterson is Chairman of the Blackstone Group. Mr. Peterson is Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, founding Chairman of the Institute for International Economics, and founding President of The Concord Coalition. Mr. Peterson was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lehman Brothers and its successor company from 1973-84.

William R. Rhodes is Vice Chairman of Citibank, N.A. He is Senior Risk Officer for Citigroup and Senior International Officer for Citibank. Mr. Rhodes joined Citibank in 1957 and served in many posts there, including as Senior Executive-International before being named Director and Vice Chairman in 1991.

Stephen S. Roach is Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Chief Economist and Director of Global Economic Analysis. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 1982, he was Vice President for the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company.

Henry B. Schacht is Director and Senior Advisor of Lucent Technologies. Mr. Schacht served as the company’s first Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 1995-97. Mr. Schacht was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cummins Engine Company.

James R. Schlesinger is Senior Advisor at Lehman Brothers and Counselor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Mr. Schlesinger was Director of Central Intelligence in 1973, Secretary of Defense from 1973-75, and the first U.S. Secretary of Energy, from 1977-79.

George Soros is Chairman of Soros Fund Management LCC. Mr. Soros funds a network of foundations dedicated to building and maintaining the infrastructure and institutions of an open society.

Laura D’Andrea Tyson is BankAmerica Dean, Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Tyson was Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and National Economic Adviser to President Clinton. She served on the President’s National Security and Domestic Policy Councils.

Ezra F. Vogel is Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard, Director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard, and Director of the Harvard University Asia Center.

Paul A. Volcker is Henry Kaufman Visiting Professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He retired as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of James D. Wolfensohn & Co., Inc. upon the merger of that firm in 1996 with the Bankers Trust company, of which Mr. Volcker became a director. Mr. Volcker was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1979-87.

Vin Weber is a partner at Clark & Weinstock. Mr. Weber was a Co-Founder and Co-Director of Empower America. He represented Minnesota in the United States House of Representatives from 1980-92.