to better educate america's youth about personal finance. on the regional level, many federal reserve banks work closely with the state coalitions to help achieve this worthy mission. in fact, there is at least one economic education specialist at each of the reserve banks and their branches. many of these specialists offer training seminars to help educators teach vital economic and personal finance topics in their classrooms. the federal reserve also continues to support a variety of programs and initiatives to increase financial literacy. these include : • money smart week, an annual week - long program coordinated by the federal reserve bank of chicago, which educates consumers about money management and promotes financial education awareness in 20 cities across the 7th district ; • building wealth, a resource developed by the federal reserve bank of dallas to help consumers develop a personal plan for building wealth ; • " life smarts ", a national quiz - based competition for high school students sponsored by the national consumer league and promoted by many reserve banks ; • educational web sites, such as the federal reserve bank of san francisco's " fedville, " where students actively learn more about financial concepts such as spending, saving, and earning interest ; and • federalreserveeducation. org, our system - wide education web portal offering easy access to a host of beneficial resources geared toward students, parents, and teachers. in addition to these and many other federal reserve resources, we will continue to work to expand the resources and programs devoted to the important public policy challenge of improving financial literacy. i want to take this opportunity to thank the jump $ tart coalition and their partners for their continued support and commitment to furthering the financial education of our youth. now, it is with great pleasure that i introduce laura levine, executive director of jump $ tart and appointed member of president bush's recently formed council on financial literacy, who will give a report on the status of financial education of youth in this country.

oversight board ( piob ) should, over time, lead to enhanced audit standards and practices around the world. the financial stability forum is pleased to have been a strong supporter of this initiative, and i am happy to see that the piob is represented at this roundtable today together with the leaders of ifac and many monitoring group representatives. the financial stability forum has taken a close interest in national and international efforts to strengthen confidence in financial reporting frameworks. stronger and more - convergent national systems bring clear financial stability and efficiency benefits. the forum's efforts have included a focus on the global - standards - setting activities of the iasb on the accounting side and the iaasb on the auditing side. the goal of global standards in both areas will require a high degree of convergence between u. s. and international standards, and efforts toward full commonality are well underway. the forum's interest reflects the strong recognition of its members that the potential financial stability and efficiency benefits are significant : high - quality global accounting standards can lead to enhanced transparency that will improve market discipline and foster stable financial markets. likewise, external audits performed in accordance with high - quality global audit standards can ensure that financial statements are reliable, transparent, and useful to the marketplace, thus enhancing market confidence. i am sure that we all want to see, over time, a restoration of public confidence in the quality of financial reporting and auditing, and i hope that dialogue - - such as that taking place at this roundtable - - and the initiatives of standards setters, can lead to standards that are fully understandable to preparers, users, and auditors ; that avoid undue complexity and implementation costs ; and that truly contribute to transparency. let me also stress the need to continue to implement approaches that not only improve international accounting and audit standards, but also encourage, through the implementation and enforcement of these standards, an enhancement in actual international accounting and audit practices. however, like any professional undertaking, developing accounting and auditing standards and practices can be complicated, and gaining a shared understanding of the implications for the financial reporting chain and for financial stability can take time. therefore, i am pleased to see that the financial stability forum, the iasb, and ifac conducted this roundtable on important financial reporting and auditing matters and that you are taking the time to contribute to the exchange of valuable information on key issues. i hope that this roundtable will continue to foster constructive dialogue among the many key stakeholders represented