Fed president, economist to discuss economy at University of Iowa

A former member of the Federal Open Market Committee and a world-renowned economist will discuss the Federal Reserve's recent monetary policy next month at a University of Iowa College of Law conference.

Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and Allan Meltzer, professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University, are expected to present competing ideas about how to handle America's national debt at the conference.

"Fiscal Reform, Monetization or Default: How Will the United States Solve the Problem of its National Debt?" will be held at 1 p.m., Saturday, April 13, in the Pappajohn Business Building in Iowa City. The event is free and open to the public.

Lockhart, who was a member of the FOMC, a committee within the Federal Reserve that oversees buying and selling Treasury securities, has supported the Federal Reserve's recent policies of buying large quantities of government bonds and asset-backed securities. Meltzer has been critical of the policies and has argued that they eventually cause inflation.

Other speakers scheduled to appear at the conference are Steven Schwarcz of Duke University, a leading voice on systemic risk in the financial system, and Charles Himmelberg, who is head of global credit strategy at Goldman Sachs.

For more information, call (319) 335-9158.