Last modified: Monday, November 1, 2010
Federal Reserve researcher to assess economic effect of euro on Midwest at Indy event
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 1, 2010
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A former Indiana University professor who is now senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis will give a presentation about the effect of economic activity in the European Union on Indiana trade and business activities.
Photo by Matt Cashore
Christopher Waller
Christopher J. Waller, also the Gilbert Schaefer Chair of Economics at the University of Notre Dame, will speak at noon on Thursday, Nov. 18 at the Hilton Indianapolis Hotel & Suites at 120 W. Market St., in Indianapolis. The title of his presentation will be, "The euro and Its Effects on the Midwest."
The euro, one of the largest fiscal experiments in history, has global financial markets worried about its future. Waller, who has written extensively about European monetary affairs, will discuss how the Midwest's economy is influenced by and invested in the euro.
The European Union Center at IU Bloomington is hosting the event. The public is invited. Registration costs $25 and lunch will be provided. For more information or to register, visit www.indiana.edu/~eucenter or contact Brant Beyer at 812-856-3238 or bbeyer@indiana.edu.
Roy Gardner, Chancellor's Professor of Economics and West European Studies at IU, said the austerity measures now being undertaken by many European countries merit close examination by U.S. and state policymakers.
"We've got the same kinds of issues as the EU in the United States and at state levels too," said Gardner, a frequent research collaborator with Waller. "There are deficits everywhere and, if they aren't addressed, all of the states' (economies) will look like Greece, which is on the verge of default.
"There are lessons to be learned and the Europeans are doing an impressive job in addressing their fiscal issues," he added.
Indiana exported $6.6 billion in goods to Europe in 2009 and two-thirds of all foreign investment in the state comes from that group of nations. Indiana's exports to the EU were $3.96 billion in the first half of 2010, compared to $3.1 billion for the first half of 2009, a 28 percent increase.
Waller was a member of the economics faculty at IU Bloomington from 1985 to 1998. He also has been on the faculty at the National University of Kiev in the Ukraine, the Center for European Integration at the University of Bonn in Germany, the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and the University of Kentucky. He has been a member of the Notre Dame faculty since 2003.
At the St. Louis Fed, he oversees the research department and advises the bank president on policy. He also participates in the Federal Open Market Committee meetings in Washington, D.C., which determine monetary policy regarding interest rates.
An expert on monetary theory, dollarization and the political economy of central banking, he also has served as a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis and Cleveland, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Central Intelligence Agency, and the Economics Education and Research Consortium.
His research has been published in top economic journals, including American Economic Review, the Journal of Monetary Economics and the Quarterly Journal of Economics.
In the two decades leading up to the introduction of the euro, IU scholars were heavily involved. Waller joined then fellow IU monetary policy economists Gardner, Michele Fratianni, George von Furstenberg and Juergen Von Hagen, who advised central bankers in Europe.
This event also is co-sponsored by the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the IU Bloomington Department of Economics.
