Hamline University invites the public to the annual Alkire Symposium on International Business and Economics, which this year features president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Dr. Narayana Kocherlakota. His talk, entitled "Monetary Policy Actions and Fiscal Policy Substitutes," will be held on Tuesday, November 30 at 11:30 a.m. in Sundin Music Hall, 1531 Hewitt Avenue, on Hamline’s Saint Paul Campus. The event is free and open to all. 

As the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Kocherlakota serves on the Federal Open Market Committee, the policymaking arm of the Federal Reserve System, consisting of the presidents of the twelve Federal Reserve banks and the members of the Board of Governors. The Federal Open Market Committee determines monetary policy for the nation. In addition to participation in monetary policymaking, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis supervises numerous banking organizations and provides a variety of payments services to financial institutions and the U.S. government.

Before taking on his current role, Kocherlakota was a consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, a professor of economics at the University of Minnesota, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a research staff member at the Minneapolis Fed. Kocherlakota earned a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and an AB in mathematics from Princeton.

Kocherlakota’s background and expertise make him an ideal keynote speaker for the Howard and Darrel Alkire Symposium on International Business and Economics. The annual symposium was created to promote discussion about international business and economic issues among policy makers, business and corporate leaders, and the academic community. The late Howard Alkire founded the Country Club Markets and was long-time director and chairman of the executive committee of the Apache Corporation. He had a lifelong interest in international affairs and hoped to leave a legacy to promote awareness of international business and economics with students, faculty members, and regional business leaders. In 1991, his wife, Darrel R. Alkire, a life trustee of Hamline University, established the Howard Alkire Chair in International Business and Economics in memory of her husband and to further his goals.