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Session 23: Economic Debate 2008
A debate among the economic advisers of the top U.S. presidential candidates.
Presentations
Presentations will be uploaded after the session
Speakers
Thomas R. Keene
Bloomberg News
Thomas R. Keene is an editor-at-large for Bloomberg News. He provides economic and investment perspective to Bloomberg's various news divisions and writes the chart of the day article, available only on the BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL service. He features the chart on Bloomberg Television. Tom is host of "Bloomberg on the Economy" heard weekdays on the Bloomberg Radio network and on podcasts on Bloomberg.com and iTunes. He is editor of Flying on One Engine, The Bloomberg Book of Master Market Economists, Fourteen Views on the World Economy, published in 2005. He is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology and is enrolled in courses at the London School of Economics. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a member of the CFA Institute, the National Association for Business Economics and The Economic Club of New York
J. French Hill
Investor & Venture Capitalist
J. French Hill, 50, is an investor and venture capitalist living in his hometown of Little Rock. He is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Delta Trust & Banking Corp., a private banking company headquartered in Little Rock.
Mr. Hill founded Delta Trust after a six-year career with Arkansas’ largest bank holding company, First Commercial Corp. First Commercial is now part of Regions Financial Corp. (RF). He was responsible for First Commercial’s $13 billion trust company and the company’s investment broker-dealer operations. As an executive officer of First Commercial, he also oversaw human resources, compliance, asset quality and strategic planning.
Over the past twenty-five years, Mr. Hill has had a rich career in both the private and public sectors. He has served as an advisor to Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former U.S. Senators John Tower (R-TX) and Jake Garn (R-UT) and former President George Bush. As a ninth generation Arkansan, he is dedicated to his hometown of Little Rock and his native state of Arkansas. On June 20, 2006, President George W. Bush appointed Mr. Hill to serve as a member of the Community Development Advisory Board of the U.S. Treasury.
From May 1989 until January 20, 1993, Mr. Hill served as a senior official in the Bush Administration. He was appointed by President George H.W. Bush as Special Assistant to the President on September 4, 1991. He served as the Executive Secretary to the President's Economic Policy Council (EPC). The EPC, composed of the President's cabinet, was the primary channel for advising the President on the formation, coordination, and implementation of domestic and economic policy -- including international economic and trade policies. Mr. Hill chaired the Trade Policy Review Group (TPRG) and the International Economic Policy Group.
Prior to his joining the White House staff, Mr. Hill served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Corporate Finance. He was appointed to that position in May 1989. While at the Treasury Department, his responsibilities included policy formation in areas of securities, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, the competitiveness of the financial services sector, and other issues of importance to the corporate sector of the economy. He represented the United States as a negotiator in the historic trade talks with Japan known as the Structural Impediments Initiative (SII). After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mr. Hill led the design of U. S. technical assistance to the emerging economies of eastern and central Europe in the areas of banking and securities. For his leadership and service at the Treasury and the White House, Mr. Hill was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady in January 1993.
Mr. Hill’s venture capital and investment banking experience began in 1984 with the private merchant banking firm, Mason Best Company, Dallas, Texas. As a member of the firm's founding management team, Mr. Hill gained broad experience in the structuring and negotiating of a variety of financial transactions including venture capital, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. He was president of a Mason Best Company affiliated entity, MB Securities Company, Ltd., a member firm of the NASD (now known as FINRA).
Mr. Hill was recognized as an Outstanding Young Arkansan in April 1994 by the Jaycees; included in "40 Under 40" in Arkansas Business in July 1996; and awarded in February 1998 the Silver Beaver Award by the Boy Scouts of America for his commitment to youth. In 1999, he was named Museum Trustee of the Year for his work on behalf of the Historic Arkansas Museum. In 2002, he was awarded the Hanlon Award by the City of Little Rock for Outstanding Business Leader for the arts and humanities. In 2007, he received the Arkansas Heritage Award from Governor Mike Beebe at the Annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism.
Mr. Hill is a magna cum laude graduate in Economics from Vanderbilt University. He is married to the former Martha McKenzie of Dallas, Texas, and they have a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth McKenzie Hill, and a son, William Payne Hill.
John Silvia
Chief Economist
Wachovia Bank N.A.
Dr. John Silvia joined Wachovia in February 2002 as chief economist for the Bank. Previously, John worked on Capitol Hill as senior economist for the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee and chief economist for the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Prior to that, he was chief economist of Kemper Funds and managing director of Scudder Kemper Investments, Inc. Before joining Kemper Funds, John worked for Harris Bank and taught economics at Indiana University.
John holds a B.A. and a Ph.D. degree in economics from Northeastern University in Boston and has a Master’s degree in economics from Brown University in Providence, RI.
John serves as a member of the Blue Chip Panel of Economic Forecasters and also serves on an informal advisory group for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He is a member of the Economic Advisory Committee at the American Bankers Association and is President of the Charlotte Economics Club. In the past, John has served on economic advisory committees to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Public Securities Association.
In addition, John is Treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors for The Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, a Charlotte civic association. He is also a member of the Business Advisory Committee for the City of Charlotte and he serves on the President’s Council for Charlotte’s Central Piedmont Community College.
Daniel K. Tarullo
Georgetown University
Daniel K. Tarullo is Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He teaches and writes in the areas of international economic law, banking and financial regulation, and the relationship between foreign policy and economic policy. During the Clinton Administration he was, successively, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and Assistant to the President for International Economic Policy. In March 1995, President Clinton appointed Tarullo as his personal representative (“sherpa”) to the G-7/G-8 group of industrialized nations. Before joining the Administration in 1993, Professor Tarullo had practiced law in Washington, served on the staff of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and taught at Harvard Law School.
Brian Deese
Economic adviser to Senator Clinton
Brian Deese is an Economic Policy Advisor to Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Previously, Brian was a Senior Economic Analyst at the Center for American Progress, where he worked on issues of budget and tax policy, trade, and higher education. Before that, Brian worked as a researcher at the Center for Global Development, where he managed a legislative outreach program on international economic development issues. He is the co-author of the book Delivering on Debt Relief, and numerous articles on economic policy that have appeared in publications including the American Prospect, Washington Monthly, International Herald Tribune, and the Atlantic Economic Journal. He is a graduate of Middlebury College and attends Yale Law School.
