[November 05, 2010] Federal Reserve hosts Jekyll conference Tweet Nov 05, 2010 (The Brunswick News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Leaders of the Federal Reserve System will be on Jekyll Island today and Saturday for a conference to mark the 100th anniversary of a meeting on the island that led to the creation of Federal Reserve. Among the participants will be Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. The Federal Reserve System, which sets the nation's monetary policy and regulates its private banking system, was developed from ideas drafted 100 years ago on Jekyll Island, then an enclave for many of the nation's wealthiest industrial magnates and financiers. After a financial panic in 1907, U.S. Sen. Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island was part of commission created by Congress to study banking reform. After meeting with New York bankers in November 1910 for 10 days on Jekyll Island, a map for a central banking system --called the Aldrich plan -- was drafted. A few years later, the plan served as the blueprint for the Federal Reserve Act, which was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. That origin of what is now referred to casually as the Fed, along with its history, performance and future will be discussed during the two-day conference at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. Fed officials and professors from some of the nation's top universities, including Boston University, University of California-Berkely, Columbia University and Carnegie Mellon University will lead the discussions. The conference will end Saturday morning with Bernanke and Greenspan scheduled to participate in a panel discussion about the purpose, structure and function of the Fed. Bernanke is expected to talk to college students today in Jacksonville. About 100 people are expected at the conference, which can be attended only by invitation and is not open to the public. The panel discussion that will include Bernanke and Greenspan, however, will be shown live on a public webcast on the Internet, said Jean Tate, spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve of Atlanta. Some panel discussions will be available later on the Internet as podcasts. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and Rutgers University are co-sponsoring the conference. Watch To watch the panel discussion with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan live from Jekyll Island at 10:45 a.m. Saturday, go online to www.frbatlanta.org. To see more of The Brunswick News or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, The Brunswick News, Ga. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544). [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]