Peterson Institute Press Room

C. Fred Bergsten to Step Down as Director of Peterson Institute for International Economics at End of 2012

WASHINGTON—C. Fred Bergsten, founding director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics since its creation in 1981, will step down from that position at the end of this year. The executive committee of the Institute's board of directors has launched a search process to identify, select and appoint a new director. James W. Owens, chairman of the executive committee and former chairman and CEO of Caterpillar, Inc., said the board hopes to name a new director by the middle of this year and to complete the transition to the new leadership by the end of 2012.

"Upon completing my thirtieth year as director, I have decided that this is the optimal time to arrange an orderly transition to new leadership," Dr. Bergsten said. "The Institute is in its strongest position ever in terms of its substantive capabilities, global reputation and financial position. I am confident that the board will select a new director who will enable the Institute to make even greater contributions in the future to a strong and cooperative world economy. I am proud to have served for so long with such an outstanding team at the Institute and on its board and nothing will make me prouder than to see the Institute thrive and grow under new leadership in the years ahead, which I am confident it will do."

The board has asked Dr. Bergsten to remain actively engaged in the work of the Institute after his successor assumes office, as a senior fellow and director emeritus. "I look forward to playing an active role in its research program for many years," Dr. Bergsten said, noting that one of his reasons for stepping down as director is to enable him to do more research and writing on a variety of international economic topics.

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News Release: Michael L. Mussa, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Former IMF Chief Economist, Dies at 67

WASHINGTON—Michael L. Mussa, a renowned international economist who had been a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics since 2001, and who was a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), died on January 15. Mussa, who was 67, died of heart failure at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC. He served as chief economist at the IMF (1991–2001) and was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers (1986–88) under President Ronald Reagan. Previously he had been a professor of economics at the University of Chicago Business School and at the University of Rochester.

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News Release: Fred Bergsten Appointed to Ex-Im Bank Advisory Committee

WASHINGTON—The Peterson Institute for International Economics is pleased to announce that C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Institute, has been appointed to the Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank). The Ex-Im Bank is the official export credit agency of the United States government. Its mission is to assist in financing the export of US goods and services to international markets at no cost to American taxpayers. The Ex-Im Bank approved $32.7 billion in total authorizations in FY 2011, including more than $6 billion directly supporting small-business export sales. Its authorizations support an estimated $41 billion in US export sales and approximately 290,000 American jobs.

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Press Conference Call: The Outcome of the December 9 EU Summit and ECB Action and their Impact on Economic and Financial Stability in Europe

C. Fred Bergsten, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, and Nicolas Véron interpreted recent events in Europe, including new initiatives announced by the European Central Bank, and the outcome of the December 9 European Union summit and suggested next steps to resolve the crisis.

Media Advisory: Insights into the Latest Employment Numbers and Developments in Europe

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:00:00 -0400

In light of the new employment numbers today, please take a look at a posting on our RealTime Economic Issues forum by Howard F. Rosen, suggesting that policymakers should focus more attention on the causes of the generally anemic growth of this year. He notes that with corporate profits running at $2 trillion a year, US corporations are experiencing the much-anticipated "V shaped" recovery. US workers, on the other hand, are experiencing little recovery at all, in spite of the latest numbers. Rosen urges more attention to federal, state, and local government spending and also to steps to encourage private investment in plant and equipment.

Please also take a look at Jacob Funk Kirkegaard's posting earlier in the week on the coming "quantum leap" in euro area integration and at a Peterson Perspectives audio interview with Joseph E. Gagnon on the latest statements of Mario Draghi, the new president of the European Central Bank (ECB), and the actions of the ECB, the Federal Reserve, and other central banks to counter the effects of the European sovereign debt crisis.

News Release: Foreign Policy Lists Reinhart and Subramanian among World's Top 100 Thinkers

Washington—The Peterson Institute is pleased to announce that Senior Fellows Carmen Reinhart and Arvind Subramanian have been named among Foreign Policy magazine's Top 100 Thinkers of 2011. Reinhart is honored for "raising the alarm about America's debt burden." Subramanian is recognized for "sounding the alarm on China's economic ascendancy."

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Press Conference Call: The Global Economy after the G-20 Meeting in Cannes

C. Fred Bergsten, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, Michael Mussa, and Edwin M. Truman discussed what was and was not accomplished at the G-20 summit in Cannes as well as the latest developments in Greece, Italy, and the euro area as a whole.

Media Advisory for Nov. 2, 2011: Peterson Institute Hosts Hill Briefing on US Tax Discrimination

Contact: Katharine Keenan (202) 454-1334
For Immediate Release

November 2, 2011

Peterson Institute Hosts Hill Briefing on US Tax Discrimination

Washington, DC – In an effort to contextualize US tax policy within a global perspective, The Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) will host a Capitol Hill breakfast discussion on Wednesday, November 2 to discuss the policy brief, "US Tax Discrimination against Large Corporations Should Be Discarded." The event will feature study co-author and prominent international trade, investment and tax expert Gary Clyde Hufbauer.

What: Breakfast Briefing answering the question "Why is tax discrimination a bad idea?"

Where: SD-562, Dirksen Senate Office Building

When: 9 AM, November 2, 2011

Who: Gary Clyde Hufbauer, The Peterson Institute for International Economics

RSVP: peterson.institute.briefing@gmail.com

– Breakfast sandwiches will be served at 8:45 AM –
– Briefing discussion will be approximately one hour long –

Dr. Hufbauer has written extensively on international trade, investment, and tax issues. PIIE's recent brief examines the impact of discriminatory tax burdens against large corporations. Though public opinion holds that large corporations should pay a higher-than-average statutory tax rate and enjoy fewer deductions in computing their taxable income, PIIE experts conclude this policy undermines Americans workers, competitiveness and innovation and is misaligned with current US export goals.
The study is available at: http://www.piie.com/publications/interstitial.cfm?ResearchID=1948
To speak with Dr. Hufbauer, please call Katharine Keenan at (202) 454-1334.

About the Peterson Institute

The Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution devoted to the study of international economic policy. Since 1981 the Institute has provided timely and objective analysis of, and concrete solutions to, a wide range of international economic problems. It is one of the very few economics think tanks that are widely regarded as "nonpartisan" by the press and "neutral" by the US Congress, its research staff is cited by the quality media more than that of any other such institution. Support is provided by a wide range of charitable foundations, private corporations and individual donors, and from earnings on the Institute's publications and capital fund. It moved into its award-winning new building in 2001, and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2006 and adopted its new name at that time, having previously been the Institute for International Economics.

News Release: Peterson Institute Wins "Oscar of the Think Tank World"

Washington—The Peterson Institute for International Economics is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of the 2011 Prospect Award for Best Think Tank outside the United Kingdom. British Broadcasting Corporation's Radio 4 has dubbed the annual Prospect Think Tank Awards "the Oscars of the think tank world".

"We are delighted to receive such high praise from a publication of Prospect's stature," said Peterson Institute Director C. Fred Bergsten. "We at the Institute strive to provide the highest quality, balanced, and policy-relevant research from some of the world's top experts on international economics."

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News Release: Services Can Pace New Export Boom

Washington—Policymakers have largely overlooked the export potential of the economy's fast-growing services sector, which could become an abundant source of well-paying jobs for Americans. A new book published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Global Trade in Services: Fear, Facts and Offshoring by senior fellow J. Bradford Jensen, lists several misconceptions about the kinds of jobs in that sector. A common belief is that business services such as software, finance, architecture and engineering are niche sectors. However, these jobs account for 25 percent of US workers—more than double those in manufacturing. In the past decade, employment in services has grown by over 20 percent while manufacturing declined by 20 percent.

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News Release: New Book Asserts that China Will Eclipse the United States

WASHINGTON—China's economic dominance over the United States is likely to be more imminent, broader in scope, and larger in magnitude than is generally believed. Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China's Economic Dominance argues that this dominance is a product of historical forces, economic policies and objectives laid out by China, and that the United States cannot do much about it. Author Arvind Subramanian, senior fellow at the Institute, challenges a widely held view that the right set of economic policies can retain the United States' position as the most economically competitive and powerful nation in the world.

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News Release: Flexible Exchange Rates Work

WASHINGTON—Monetary policymakers around the world have increased the instability of employment and inflation by responding too much to pressures on their exchange rates, according to Flexible Exchange Rates for a Stable World Economy, a new book by Senior Fellow Joseph E. Gagnon. The book combines the latest economic theory with a comprehensive examination of historical experience and shows that, when monetary policy focuses directly on stabilizing employment and inflation, even very large appreciations or depreciations of the currency do not cause economic harm.

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News Release: Senior Fellow Carmen M. Reinhart Wins Council on Foreign Relations' Arthur Ross Book Award

WASHINGTON—The Peterson Institute for International Economics is pleased to announce that Senior Fellow Carmen M. Reinhart, along with her coauthor Kenneth S. Rogoff, have won the Council on Foreign Relations' tenth annual Arthur Ross Book Award for their trailblazing study, This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Their provocative study is widely quoted and has increasingly informed the policy discussion surrounding the current financial and economic crisis.

"We at the Institute are enormously proud of Carmen's contribution to the understanding of one of the most critical issues facing the world today and its potential to help guide us out of the crisis," said C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute. Reinhart has been Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow since joining the Peterson Institute from the University of Maryland in November 2010.

This Time is Different provides a comprehensive analysis of financial crises of the last 800 years. In each instance, contemporary observers asserted that their particular circumstances were unique, bearing little resemblance to past experiences and therefore suggesting that the old rules no longer applied. Reinhart and Rogoff, who is a professor of economics at Harvard, present evidence to the contrary and powerfully demonstrate remarkable similarities in sovereign defaults, bank failures and other financial disruptions over many centuries. They find the frequency, duration and severity of financial crises to be strikingly consistent. However, they say, a sort of amnesia occurs among policy makers that contributes to their complacency and to the recurrence of crises.

The Arthur Ross Book Award is a prestigious prize for a book on international affairs. It was endowed by Arthur Ross in 2001 to honor nonfiction works, in English or translation, that merit special attention for bringing forth new information that changes the world's understanding of events or problems and leads to new insights that help resolve foreign and economic policy problems. The winner receives $15,000. An award ceremony took place on September 8 in New York.

News Release: Peterson Institute Forecasts Slower Growth This Year but Possibly Better Prospects in 2012

WASHINGTON—The economic slowdown in the United States, Europe and Japan, partially offset by more hopeful prospects among emerging market and developing countries, lead to an estimate of growth for the world economy at 3.8 percent this year according to Michael Mussa, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. Dr. Mussa remains "optimistic but not exuberant" about growth prospects in 2012 and projects global growth at 4.2 percent.

These projections were the focus of the twentieth semiannual Global Economic Prospects program at the Peterson Institute on September 9. Simon Johnson and Carmen Reinhart, senior fellows at the Institute, also made presentations at the program. Dr. Reinhart reviewed the dangers of the mounting debt burden in the United States and other countries and Dr. Johnson said that Europe's efforts to address its sovereign debt crisis appeared to be falling short.

The key question for the global economy, said Dr. Mussa, was whether growth will be sustained in 2012 or whether a more significant slowdown is likely. Part of that answer lies with the developing world, which dropped from 7 percent growth in 2010 to slightly below 6 percent this year. Dr. Mussa believes these countries will sustain 6 percent growth next year, assuming that the advanced economies do not again fall into recession. The modestly slower growth in these countries, he said, results from a normal slowdown, after an initial burst following the crisis of 2008–09, and tighter policies to curb inflation in some countries.

The main shadow over the global picture comes from the advanced economies, which face many challenges: Core inflation has been on an uptrend for the United States but is somewhat erratic for Europe and significantly negative in Japan. While growth in the advanced economies will probably fall below 2 percent this year, Dr. Mussa projected a modest acceleration next year but only to a rate of 2.6 percent.

Western Europe has been plagued by the fiscal and financial problems of Spain and Italy as well as Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Increasing worries about fiscal sustainability have spilled over to concerns about the viability of European banks. Dr. Mussa credited European policy makers with efforts to deal with the problem but added that further steps will be needed. If they are carried out, Europe will "not likely fall back into recession."

For the United States, Dr. Mussa said real GDP growth has fallen well below his earlier forecast. For 2012, he projected year-over-year growth of 2.8 percent. Under current circumstances, an excessive focus on fiscal consolidation next year could turn an already disappointing recovery into something worse. The new proposals outlined by President Obama to boost US employment would help by eliminating this fiscal drag and perhaps even converting it into a modest stimulus.

Dr. Reinhart discussed the challenges to the global economy posed by the massive overhang of public and private debt in wealthier countries, particularly the United States and Europe. Emerging markets, at the same time, face concerns raised by their large capital inflows and consequent inflationary pressures along with risk of asset bubbles and overheating. Based on the historic record of downturns following a financial crisis, Dr. Reinhart said that the "big issue for years to come" is the likelihood of a return to "financial repression." Such a phenomenon would consist of widespread debt restructurings as already being discussed in Europe. Such restructurings are in effect, a tax on bondholders and savers. She added that there was "no easy way out" of the current crisis and that, if the past is any guide, unemployment is likely to remain high in advanced economies for some years.

In an analysis of the situation in Europe, Simon Johnson found that recent developments have not been encouraging. In his presentation, an update of his Policy Brief of last July entitled "Europe on the Brink," coauthored with Peter Boone, Johnson said, that in the best case scenario, austerity will prevail across the heart of the euro area for the foreseeable future. The generally accepted strategy of trying to prevent a Greek debt restructuring from adversely affecting the financial stability of the rest of the region is unlikely to work. If efforts to avoid contagion prove unsuccessful, the debate will shift to the European Central Bank with a growing likelihood that it will have to continue buying Italian and Spanish bonds without regard to amount or face a devastating financial crisis that would wipe out the capital of all major European banks. Johnson thinks the bond buying approach will succeed but expects inflation and depreciation to follow.

On Labor Day: More Americans Are Working but the Labor Force Is Shrinking

As Americans observe Labor Day, and the latest numbers released by the US government show disappointing job growth, the US labor market faces several major problems. First, although private employment has been increasing, it remains below what it was at the outset of the Great Recession. Total private employment has increased by 1.7 million (or 1.6 percent) since August 2009, but it remains 6.2 million (or 5.8 percent) below its August 2007 level. Compared to recoveries following the previous 5 recessions, total employment had increased by between 6 million to 7 million (or approximately 7 percent) 2 years after the end of the 1973–75 and 1981–82. The current recovery is clearly the weakest one in recent history.

RealTime post by Howard F. Rosen.

Media Advisory: The Greek Debt Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities

WHO:
Evangelos Venizelos
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Greece

WHEN:
Monday, July 25
6:00-7:15 PM
(Speech at 6:00, reception at 7:15)

WHERE:
Bergsten Conference Center, PIIE
1750 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
(Metro: Red Line to Dupont Circle, south exit.)

RSVP:
Katharine Keenan, kkeenan@piie.com

Although Greece teeters on the edge of default, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos is confident that a debt deal is attainable and that his country is on track to reach a primary budget surplus by 2012. In a recent interview, he described protection of Greece from default as "a self defense mechanism for the eurozone". The minister, who is also deputy prime minister, will visit Washington next week following an emergency euro area summit in Brussels. He will meet with new IMF managing director Christine Lagarde as well as top US Officials to discuss financing for the Greek reform program. PIIE will host the only public appearance during his visit on Monday, July 25 at 6 PM. He will address "The Greek Debt Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities". His remarks will be followed by discussion with the audience. If you are not able to attend, event materials including audio and video will be posted here.

About Evangelos Venizelos
Minister Venizelos assumed his current responsibilities on June 17. He had previously been Minister for National Defense since October 2009. In previous PASOK governments, he held five other ministerial appointments including Minister for Justice, Minister for Culture (on two occasions) and Minister for Development. He has been a member of the PASOK central committee since 1990, a member of its executive bureau and an elected Member of Parliament from Thessaloniki in six consecutive elections. He is a lawyer by training and has written a number of books, most recently Agenda 16 in 2007.

News Release: Europe on the Brink: Three Scenarios for the Future of the Euro Area

WASHINGTON—Europe’s efforts to stabilize its finances are failing and the region needs to prepare for widespread restructuring of sovereign and bank debt according to a new Policy Brief from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. In "Europe on the Brink," authors Peter Boone and Simon Johnson argue that Europe’s financial system has relied on a policy of protecting creditors from default and has thus spread pervasive moral hazard—a presumption by creditors that they will not take losses on their loans to Greece and other ailing countries. The authors argue that this situation is no longer tenable and examine three possible scenarios for what might happen in coming months as the sovereign debt crisis evolves.

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News Release: Peter Boone Joins Peterson Institute as Nonresident Senior Fellow

WASHINGTON—The Peterson Institute for International Economics is pleased to announce that Peter Boone has joined its staff as a nonresident senior fellow. He is coauthor, with Senior Fellow Simon Johnson, of "Europe on the Brink," a Policy Brief that the Institute is releasing today.

"Peter Boone is a welcome addition to the Peterson Institute staff and brings a wealth of experience, especially in the area of financial crises, to complement our existing research program," said Institute Director C. Fred Bergsten.

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News Release: New Book Documents Latvia's Swift Recovery from the Financial Crisis

WASHINGTON—Latvia offers a case study of how rigorous fiscal adjustment combined with structural reforms can restore economic growth and financial stability two years after a devastating financial crisis, according to a new book published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The book, How Latvia Came through the Financial Crisis, is written by Senior Fellow Anders Åslund and Valdis Dombrovskis, the Prime Minister of Latvia, who offers a first-hand account of how he shepherded Latvia through its recent turmoil. The book also examines the Baltic state’s approach to reform and what lessons the struggling countries of Southern Europe can draw from this drama.

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Media Advisory: Ukraine's Future:�The Challenges and Impact of Governance in Ukraine

FEATURING:
Pavlo Klimkin
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister

Zbigniew Brzezinski
Former National Security Advisor

WHEN:
Thursday, July 7
8:30 AM Registration
9:00 AM – 2:30 PM Conference

WHERE:
Bergsten Conference Center, PIIE
1750 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
(Metro: Red Line to Dupont Circle, south exit.)

RSVP:
Katharine Keenan, kkeenan@piie.com

The state of governance in Ukraine today is the subject of widespread debate.� Ukrainian and international observers cite corruption, flaws in the October 2010 local elections, inappropriate actions by the Security Service, and prosecution of political opposition figures as evidence of democratic backsliding under President Viktor Yanukovych.� The president and his government deny these charges, contending that centralizing some authority is required to bring about order, govern effectively, and implement difficult and overdue economic reforms.� What is happening with the state of governance in Ukraine?� How is it affecting the Ukrainian economy and Ukraine’s foreign relations, particularly with Europe and the United States?� And how should the West engage the Yanukovych government and Ukrainian civil society to protect democratic and market-oriented progress? On July 7 from 9:00am to 2:30pm, PIIE, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings and the Atlantic Council will co-host a conference to address these and related questions.�

Agenda:

8:30 am �� Registration
Coffee and tea available

9:00 am�� Welcome
Steven Pifer, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

9:05 am�� Conversation with Pavlo Klimkin, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine
Moderator: Damon Wilson, Executive Vice President, Atlantic Council

9:45 am �� Panel 1: The Challenges of Governance in Ukraine
Moderator: Anders Aslund, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Adrian Karatnycky, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council, New York
David Kramer, President, Freedom House, Washington
Oleh Rybachuk, Chairman, United Action Center, Kyiv
Viktoria Sjumar, Executive Director, Institute of Mass Information, Kyiv

11:15 am�� Coffee Break

11:30 am�� Panel 2: Impact on the Economy and Foreign Policy
Moderator:� Steven Pifer, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Leonid Kozhara, Member of Parliament, Regions Party, Kyiv
James Sherr, Senior Fellow, Royal Institute for International Affairs, London
Olga Shumylo-Tapiola, Visiting Scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Brussels
Damon Wilson, Executive Vice President, Atlantic Council, Washington
Jorge Zukoski, President, American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, Kyiv

1:00 pm �� Buffet Lunch

1:30 pm�� Keynote Discussion with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. National Security Advisor
Counselor and Trustee, Center for Strategic & International Studies
Chair:� C. Fred Bergsten, Director, Peterson Institute for International Economics

2:30 pm�� End of Conference

News Release: New Study Examines America's Energy Security Options

WASHINGTON—A new study from the Peterson Institute for International Economics evaluates the ability of recent policy proposals, from offshore drilling to vehicle efficiency standards, to make America more energy secure. The authors find that a comprehensive approach, comprising eight to ten major components, is required to significantly alter the country’s energy future. Such a strategy could cut US energy inputs in half over the next fifteen years but even then the United States will remain vulnerable to international oil market disruptions with all the attendant economic and national security consequences.

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Media Advisory: America's Energy Security Options

WHO:	Trevor Houser Visiting Fellow, PIIE Daniel Yergin Chairman, Cambridge Energy Research Associates Heather Zichal Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change McKie Campbell Republican Staff Director for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
WHEN:	Thursday, June 30, 2011, 10 am–Noon
WHERE:	C. Fred Bergsten Conference Center Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics 1750 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 (Metro: Red Line to Dupont Circle, south exit.)
RSVP:	Katharine Keenan, Media Relations Manager 202.454.1334 Note: This meeting is open to all press but by invitation only to the general public.

Rising oil prices and instability in the Middle East have brought energy security back into the forefront of American political debate. The Obama Administration and congressional leaders have proposed remedies from expanded domestic oil production to accelerated deployment of natural gas and electric vehicles. PIIE's Trevor Houser has analyzed each of these proposals in a new study, America's Energy Security Options, coauthored with Shashank Mohan of the Rhodium Group. The study takes an in-depth look at the proposals and assesses their ability to curb US oil imports, reduce gasoline prices, increase American resilience to global oil market disruptions and improve US national security. Trevor Houser will present the results of his research at a meeting on June 30 from 10 AM to noon. Following Trevor's presentation, Daniel Yergin, Chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, will lead a panel discussion with Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change and McKie Campbell, Republican Staff Director for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Trevor Houser. The panel will take questions from the audience.

PIIE Press Call-In: The Greek Debt Crisis and Implications for the Global Economy

June 21, 2011
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, Edwin M. Truman, and Nicolas V�ron discussed the current state of the euro area crisis including implications of a Greek default and the possibility of contagion to other countries.

The Peterson Institute holds periodic conference calls for members of the media to provide insight into the pressing economic issues of the day. For more information, please contact Katharine Keenan, Media Relations Manager, at 202-454-1334 or kkeenan@piie.com.

Conference Call on European Debt Crisis

Financial and political turmoil has erupted again in Europe over Greece's debt struggles, with repercussions for the global economy. Will European leaders be able to assemble a new rescue package in time to avoid contagion to Portugal and Spain? Will the Greek crisis impede the faltering economic American recovery? Will banks holding Greek debt have to pay a price in the Greek rescue, and would that assuage demonstrators in Greece's streets? Will the tumult revive concerns about a breakup of the euro area?

Jacob Kirkegaard, Nicolas Véron and Edwin Truman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics have been following these issues carefully and will be available to discuss them at a media conference call on Tuesday, June 21 from 10:30-11:30 am ET. The session will occur at the start of high-level meetings among European finance ministers, and before a summit meeting in Europe later in the week, organized to discuss the Greek crisis. The PIIE team will discuss the different players in this drama and analyze possible outcomes at a dramatic moment in the saga of the global economic instability that began in 2008.

If you plan to participate, kindly confirm with Katharine Keenan at kkeenan@piie.com. Call-in instructions follow.

To Join the Conference Call:

At the specified time, dial the Toll-Free Access Number 800-952-1647 or Direct Dial/ International Access Number 404-920-1712.

When prompted, enter your Participant Code followed by #.
Your Participant Code is 39539386#

Star Commands:
*4-Volume - Pressing *4 will increase/decrease the volume.
*6-Mute - Participants can mute/unmute their own lines by pressing *6.

Media Advisory: Logistics Reform for Low-Value Shipments

WHO:	Gary Hufbauer Senior Fellow, PIIE
WHEN:	Wednesday, June 15, 2011, Noon–2:00 PM (Lunch at noon, program at 12:30)
WHERE:	C. Fred Bergsten Conference Center Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics 1750 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 (Metro: Red Line to Dupont Circle, south exit.)
RSVP:	Katharine Keenan, Media Relations Manager 202.454.1334 Note: This meeting is open to all press but by invitation only to the general public.

On Wednesday, June 15 PIIE will release Logistics Reform for Low-Value Shipments, a Policy Brief by Senior Fellow Gary Hufbauer and Research Analyst Yee Wong. Low-value shipments are a little known but increasingly important component of international trade and are closely linked to the rapid growth in electronic commerce. The authors argue that the United States should raise the de minimis threshold from the current level of $200 to a higher level of $800 and make other changes in customs regulations that obstruct low-value shipments. The study urges other APEC member countries to undertake similar reforms — a topic recently discussed at the APEC meeting in Big Sky, Montana.

Media Advisory: Why the World Needs an Effective and Independent IMF

WHO:	Agustín Carstens Governor of the Central Bank of Mexico
WHEN:	Monday, June 13, 2011, Noon–2:00 PM (Lunch at noon, program at 12:30)
WHERE:	C. Fred Bergsten Conference Center Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics 1750 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 (Metro: Red Line to Dupont Circle, south exit.)
RSVP:	Katharine Keenan, Media Relations Manager 202.454.1334 Note: This meeting is open to all press but by invitation only to the general public.

PIIE will host a luncheon meeting on Monday, June 13 featuring Agustín Carstens, Governor of the Central Bank of Mexico and candidate for Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. Dr. Carstens will be visiting Washington as part of his campaign to become the next MD. He will address "Why the World Needs an Effective and Independent IMF." PIIE has also extended speaking invitations to the other declared candidates, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Governor Grigori Marchenko of the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

About Agustín Carstens

Dr. Carstens became Governor of the Banco de México in January 2010. He was formerly Minister of Finance from 2006 to 2009. Dr. Carstens was Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, responsible for handling the IMF's relationship with nearly seventy member countries, from 2000 to 2003. He had previously served as Executive Director at the Fund representing the constituency including Mexico (along with Spain and Venezuela). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago under the direction of PIIE Senior Fellow Michael Mussa, who was Economic Counselor and Director of the Department of Research at the IMF from 1991 until joining the Institute in 2001.