Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker
To Deliver McKenna Lecture April 1

Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, will deliver the McKenna lecture on International Trade and Economics at 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1, at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. The event is free and open to the public with seating on a first-come basis.
Volcker, one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, served in the
federal government for nearly 30 years and through five presidential administrations. Appointed as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, he was re-appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, and may best be remembered as the man who "broke the back" of inflation in the late '70s.
After leaving the Federal Reserve in 1987, he served as Chairman of the firm of
James D. Wolfensohn & Co. until his retirement in 1996. In February 2002, President Bush asked Volcker to chair the second National Commission on the Public Service. On January 7, the commission released its final report, "Urgent Business America." The report contains 14 targeted recommendations for improving the state of the federal public service in order to better meet the needs of the 21st century. He was asked to lead an oversight panel to attempt to restructure Arthur Andersen as an audit-only firm, and currently serves as chairman of the oversight committee for the International Accounting Standards Board.
Volcker graduated from Princeton University in 1949, received a master's degree in political economy and government from Harvard University in 1951, and attended the London School of Economics. He has received more than 50 honorary degrees and is also the author, with Toyoo Gyohten, of Changing Fortunes: The World's Money and the Threat to American Leadership (1992).
Paul Volcker's Athenaeum lecture is the ninth annual McKenna Lecture on International Trade and Economics, sponsored by Donald McKenna and the Philip McKenna Foundation.