What happened to the global economy and what we can do about it
Search Results for: "new york fed"
By James Kwak I wrote a column that went up this morning at The Atlantic about the ProPublica/This American Life story about the New York Fed. The gist of the argument is that we all knew the New York Fed was captured; for people like Tim Geithner, that’s a feature, not a bug. There was a … Continue reading Game of Thrones, The Wire, and the New York Fed
By Simon Johnson. This is a long post, about 2500 words. Over the last several weeks on this blog, I have expressed a broad set of concerns about governance arrangements at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. I have made the specific case for Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, to step … Continue reading Three More Governance Questions For The New York Fed
By Simon Johnson Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, is a member of the board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Mr. Dimon’s role there is sometimes presented as “advisory” but he sits on the Management and Budget Committee; here is the committee’s charter, which includes reviewing and endorsing “the framework for compensation … Continue reading Jamie Dimon Should Resign From the Board Of The New York Fed
By Simon Johnson In an interview Thursday on PBS NewsHour, Jeffrey Brown and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner had the following exchange: “JEFFREY BROWN: Do you think Jamie Dimon should be off the board [of the New York Federal Reserve Board]? TIMOTHY GEITHNER: Well, that’s a question he’ll have to make and the Fed will have to … Continue reading Geithner to Dimon: Resign From The Board Of the New York Fed
By Simon Johnson An uncomfortable dissonance is beginning to develop within the Federal Reserve. On the one hand, senior current and former officials now generally agree with the propositions put forward by Professor Anat Admati and her distinguished colleagues – our leading banks need more capital, i.e., more equity financing relative to what they borrow. … Continue reading Is The New York Fed Making A Serious Mistake On Bank Dividends?
At the height of the financial panic last fall Goldman Sachs became a bank holding company, which enabled it to borrow directly from the Federal Reserve. It also became subject to supervision by the Federal Reserve Board (with the NY Fed on point) – hence the brouhaha over Steven Friedman’s shareholdings. Goldman is also currently engaged in private equity … Continue reading A Short Question For Senior Officials Of The New York Fed
By James Kwak These days, some papers get more attention when they are in draft form than when they are published, in part because of the length of the review and publication cycle. Recall the Romer and Romer paper on the impact of tax changes, or the Philippon and Reshef paper on the financial sector, both of … Continue reading The Value of Connections in 2008
By James Kwak A few years ago, while still in law school, I was invited to write a chapter for a Tobin Project book on regulatory capture. It was a bit intimidating, being part of a project that included luminaries like David Moss, Dan Carpenter, Luigi Zingales, Richard Posner, Tino Cuellar, and the deans of two of … Continue reading Cultural Capture and the Financial Crisis
By James Kwak A few days ago I wrote a post that began with New York Fed President William Dudley talking tough about banks: “There is evidence of deep-seated cultural and ethical failures at many large financial institutions.” The thrust of that post was that I’m not very encouraged when regulators talk about culture and … Continue reading Whiskey Costs Money
By James Kwak Last week Peter Eavis of DealBook highlighted a statement made last year by New York Fed President William Dudley (formerly of Goldman Sachs, then a top lieutenant to Tim Geithner): “There is evidence of deep-seated cultural and ethical failures at many large financial institutions.” There was a point, say in 2008, when many … Continue reading You Don’t Say
By James Kwak . . . are excess optimism and Citibank.” That’s a saying that someone, probably Simon, repeated to me a few years ago. Crash of 1929, Latin American debt crisis, early 1990s real estate crash (OK, that wasn’t a financial crisis, just a crisis for Citibank), Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998, and, of … Continue reading “All You Need for a Financial Crisis . . .
By Simon Johnson On June 1, 2008, Timothy F. Geithner – then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York – sent an e-mail to Mervyn A. King and Paul Tucker, then respectively governor and executive director of markets at the Bank of England. In his note, Mr. Geithner transmitted recommendations (dated May 27, … Continue reading The Federal Reserve And The Libor Scandal
By Simon Johnson. This is a long blog post, about 2,800 words. On the “PBS NewsHour” in late May, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner indicated that the continued presence of Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, on the board on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York creates a perception problem that should be … Continue reading An Institutional Flaw At The Heart Of The Federal Reserve
By Simon Johnson “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty,” by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, is a brilliant and sometimes breathtaking survey of country-level governance over history and around the world. Professors Acemoglu and Robinson discern a simple pattern – when elites are held in check, typically by effective legal mechanisms, … Continue reading Jamie Dimon And The Fall Of Nations
By Simon Johnson There are two diametrically opposed views of how the largest financial companies in our economy operate. On the one hand, there are those like Charles Ferguson, director of the Academy Award-winning documentary “Inside Job” and author of the new book, “Predator Nation.” Mr. Ferguson takes the view that greed and immorality now … Continue reading Jamie Dimon And The Legitimacy Of The Federal Reserve System
The Baseline Scenario 