There is plenty of time for the Fed to signal that its policy stance has shifted, and the conclave in Jackson Hole is an excellent opportunity to start that communication. If the facts have changed, the policy implications must also change.

As US monetary officials gather for their annual Jackson Hole conclave, they will consider myriad relevant dimensions of the global economy. But the policy setting Federal Open Market Committee will move interest rates based almost entirely on its collective read of US economic circumstances.

In October 2005, Guatemala had hosted a Conclave of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, followed by the sixth meeting of negotiations to seek consensus on the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, within the framework of the Organization of American States (OAS).

BEIJING Hope and danger collided at the recently concluded National People s Congress in Beijing. The two week conclave meets annually, and while it is unfair and inaccurate to characterize the Congress as a rubber stamp exercise, delegates tend, in the main, to jump on the bandwagon of policies constructed by the central government, and by the Communist Party.

TOKYO There is something odd and disturbing about the conventional wisdom surrounding the upcoming Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As the November 9 12 conclave draws near, the international community s attention seems to be focused mainly on technocratic policy changes deemed essential to restructuring China s state dominated economy and reenergizing growth.

Industrial quantities of research, analysis, and debate have been devoted to the causes of the 2008 crisis and its consequences so it seems odd that senior central bankers are still so sharply divided on the central issue of financial stability. All those days spent in secret conclave in Basel, drinking through the BIS s legendary wine cellar, have apparently led to no consensus.

During the year there were impressive examples of country network activity. For example, the Global Compact Egypt network held a series of seminars on implementation, while the Global Compact Society India helped convene a two day Global Compact Regional Conclave in South Asia in Jamshedpur, which drew more than 200 participants and focused on the issue of business and poverty.