Some Federal Reserve officials accustomed to an automatic invitation to the central bank’s annual mountainside symposium in Jackson, Wyo., are finding themselves empty handed this year.
The Kansas City Fed bank in recent years has welcomed the president and research director from each of the 11 other regional banks. For this year’s Thursday-through-Saturday conference, a regional bank may only send one of the two officials. Also, unlike in previous years, the New York Fed’s markets chief, currently Brian Sack, isn’t invited.
The change helps to foster debate and include more non-Fed attendees such as central bankers from abroad, said Diane Raley, a Kansas City Fed spokeswoman.
Central bank officials from more than 35 countries usually travel to the Jackson Lake Lodge, elevation about 6,900 feet, to mingle with leading monetary policymakers and thinkers. Last year’s attendees included Jose De Gregorio, Chile’s central bank president; Tito Mboweni, then-governor of the South African Reserve Bank; and Richard Berner, Morgan Stanley’s co-head of global economics.
Between debates over new research and crisis management under elk-antler chandeliers, attendees take hiking and rafting excursions in Grand Teton National Park. This year’s schedule features stargazing with a local astronomy club and a visit to a ranch with a “horse whisperer,” or trainer.
Participants pay their own fees to cover the cost of the conference and meals, as well as for lodging and additional activities.
The guest-list change frees up some of the approximately 135 slots and helps the Kansas City Fed achieve its goal of bringing together diverse views, including critics of the central bank, said Raley, a senior vice president who has helped run the event for 10 years.
