Federal Reserve System - Obama Presidency Oral History

...been in process for a long time, and the Fed had actually driven it. The New Yor...

...a tough fight that also we were coming— the Fed and the OCC at that point ha...

...be kind of similar to the lines of how the Fed is structured, some of its facilities...

...one. It's six to one, and that's what the Fed 's using now. In other words, th...

...chair, too. I didn't think either the Fed or the Treasury should be the chair...

...ratio sounded really good to me, but the Fed would have gone [laughs]—the Fed, bles...

...the discretion to do it themselves, and the Fed doesn't like the Collins Amendment...

...debt interventions, for instance, the Fed is doing. There are a lot o...

...instead of just doing that, the Fed had this massive intervention at th...

...want to piss them off. Then I think the Fed is just—banks being able to—I hate t...

...we have. Leading up to the crisis, the Fed was the only one who could writ...

...the capital rules. Consumer rules were the Fed . The Fed did not do a very good jo...

...practices, which was the purview of the Fed and is now the purview of th...

...I think it was—there again, but back to the Fed . The Fed refused to treat it as deb...

...just having two bank regulators: the Fed for holding companies and the FDIC fo...

...There, again, getting back to the Fed and the FDIC, is one of the two, one o...

...of the two, one of the reasons I think the Fed —notwithstanding, I've had a lot o...

...I've had a lot of disagreements with the Fed [laughs] over the years, but at leas...

...to go to the SEC for a few years, or the Fed examiners to go to the FDIC examinatio...

...If you look at what's going on now at the Fed with some of the deregulation, the...

...that we'll have that kind of courage at the Fed , and that the Congress and the Whit...

...that I would like to be appointed to the Fed , so from a personal position I kne...

...knew that you had wanted to go to the Federal Reserve . Why rather than working in th...

...had not grown up aspiring to be at the Federal Reserve . Even when I was in economic policy, ...

...policy, I hadn't aspired to be at the Federal Reserve . It was really in 2008 that it becam...

...that work on the Basel book. I saw that the Fed —I thought regulatory mistakes had bee...

...the Congress and everywhere else. But the Fed , while pursuing some policies wit...

...piece of it was after I actually got to the Fed , having Ben Bernanke as chair. I'v...

...an interaction with somebody at the Fed , in early 2007, actually. I wa...

...mortgages. So I asked this person at the Fed . I said, “Gee, what about all thes...

...of how people could—and once I got to the Fed , I saw how it could happen. The staf...

...it, but that is one approach. Within the Fed , what Ben and Janet, as the vic...

...time how we were going to solve it at the Fed , but that was what I was alluding to...

...the structure and the culture at the Fed in a moment. But first I wanted to as...

...new powers in a single agency at the Federal Reserve . Did you have an opinion at the tim...

...want to get things done. My view on the Fed itself was, I didn't—and this could no...

...a year ago to argue for a diminution in Federal Reserve regulatory authority. But I did think...

...idea for that role to be taken out of the Fed . Not because the staff had failed—t...

...One thing I learned when I got to the Fed was, the people in the Consumer an...

...a lack of confidence in that staff at the Fed , and indeed many of them ended u...

...maybe they can be informed by some of the Fed 's expertise. But I thought tha...

...the various regional reserve banks of the Fed , who had lots of small banks that the...

...wanted to have a choice of the FDIC or the Fed as their primary federal regulator. Bu...

...to do it changes. The way I think about the Fed is that the central bank, because o...

...the expertise that central banks have, the Fed is better positioned—and probably woul...

...holding companies. When we talk about the Fed becoming an institution to len...

...they currently have. The Fed being the Fed , they'll figure out how to do thing...

...aims. When you arrived at the Federal Reserve , you created something called ...

...those people from other parts of the Fed on the Large Institution Supervisio...

...to the structure of regulation at the Fed , was there any resistance from th...

...had been, obviously, pretty critical of the Fed in my testimony, in the book. When ...

...in the book. When I got there, to the Fed , and I started getting briefed b...

...the election of Obama, my arrival at the Fed —those were indications that they wer...

...in the Board of Governors, not in the Federal Reserve System as a whole. So it's a delegate...

...easy at first. It was pretty easy for the Fed and the FDIC to come to agreement...

...I thought it was incumbent upon me and the Fed to make sure that when we spoke t...

...over the last several years, the Fed has chosen to not give all the code o...

...I thought—and some of our economists at the Fed confirmed this when I asked them, an...

...with President Obama while you were at the Fed . A few years ago, the historian Pete...

...who's written a history of the Federal Reserve , wrote about you, “It's too early t...

...governor in the history of the modern Federal Reserve System .” Professor Brown also argued that th...

...of the initiatives you undertook at the Fed contributed to that. And I wanted t...

...with the campaign, and then being at the Fed , that people would be watching to se...

...moment to make clear I was now part of the Fed . Now, the president gets to appoin...

...of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve , and the president's polic...

...certain that in the time that I was at the Fed , the only times I saw the presiden...

...something having nothing to do with the Fed . It was just views on other things...

...the administration didn't like where the Fed was going, I knew without having to as...

...would be the administration view. We at the Fed could have course gone off and done th...

...Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System as a member of the Federal Open Marke...

...Federal Open Market Committee, as the Federal Reserve 's representative to the internationa...

...why you wanted to be appointed to the Federal Reserve and how you came to be invited to serv...

...ask you a bit about how you viewed the Federal Reserve in relation to ordinary people as yo...

...you'd said, “Although so much of the Fed 's work is necessarily grounded i...

...time, were there ways that you thought the Fed was too distant from the needs o...

...a lot of reading on the history of the Fed in anticipation of, with enoug...

...analytic writing about the position of the Fed in the American system of government...

...the possible exception of the military, the Fed tends to be regarded both by itself an...

...having a kind of continuity. The Fed is the Fed , regardless of who's chair, whic...

... And while that, I think, enables the Fed to be a source of stability durin...

...the policies and orientation of the Federal Reserve do change based on a number of things...

...that sometimes, particularly where the Fed was, like most central banks, quit...

...where the people who were dominating the Fed were not perhaps as attuned to th...

...Eccles, for whom the main building at the Fed is named, the chair appointed b...

...he wrote, as you read what he did at the Fed , you understand that he had a...

...Act. So when I was thinking about the Fed 's posture, I was mostly thinking abou...

...think a significant reorientation in the Fed 's policies on financial regulation wa...

...a secondary matter, I also thought that the Fed had underperformed on consume...

...for banks was a rulemaking function of the Fed , which was then carried out by the OC...

...out by the OCC and the FDIC, as well as the Fed at the banks they supervised. But o...

...to come under the protective cover of the Fed by becoming bank holding companies...

...expressed support for auditing the Federal Reserve and called for more transparency. I...

...view, what impact would auditing the Federal Reserve have had on the Fed's ability to do it...

...the Federal Reserve have had on the Fed 's ability to do its work? Here, w...

...particular I believe—for an auditing of the Fed , and Wright Patman, at that time ver...

...Congress at that point and unhappy with Federal Reserve policies. That debate raised th...

...of the country were of a new sort. So the Fed was playing some defense, and th...

...playing some defense, and the position the Fed basically came to was, Okay, audi...

...can make sure people aren't spending the Fed 's money to build fences around thei...

...Accountability Office] decide whether the Fed has the right interest-rate policies....

...who hadn't been particularly happy with the Fed 's policies, sort of scratched thei...

...Many of the proponents of auditing the Fed very much had in mind that it woul...

...that it would just make it hard for the Fed to do monetary policy and certainl...

...somewhat defensible in the '70s, where the Fed was not transparent about what it wa...

...think it is certainly, in an era where the Fed announces as much as it does—I thin...

...an annual rate of 2.5 percent. As the Federal Reserve deliberated on what additional actio...

...is where then President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Janet Yellen and the...

...to ask about ideas of inequality, how the Fed thought about inequality in those firs...

...to ask whether your memories are that the Fed thought a lot about what tools it ha...

...to some degree. I think now, with the Fed 's position being—the consensu...

...rate. And to the degree that the Fed is focused on that and thus keep...

...overt and institutionalized racism. But the Fed has a role to play, and that i...

...to the maximum-employment part of the Fed 's dual mandate. Just a couple month...

...months later, in December of 2011, the Federal Reserve released a 173-page proposal entitle...

...Was there collaboration within the Federal Reserve among the divisions of the Federa...

...Reserve among the divisions of the Federal Reserve to produce that document? One of th...

...from all the research divisions of the Fed , plus the legal division sitting—an...

...place with other agencies outside of the Fed ? Oh, well, sure. Dodd-Frank require...

...rule. But in the bank regulatory area, the Fed , the OCC, and the FDIC did almos...

...for example, by statute that's the Fed and the FDIC operating together, and w...

...wanted to make sure that we didn't have the Fed position and then the FDIC positio...

...that the FDIC—working, presumably, with the Fed and the SEC and the OCC—would be abl...

...of an administration and of people at the Fed at that point in time, they're sittin...

...always picture it as sitting either in the Fed special library or in the secretary'...

...crisis. So the argument that, Gee, if the Fed or the FDIC does this, it's going t...

...work became less supportive. Although the Fed is independent, the OCC is workabl...

...of potential correlated risk, out of the Fed 's consolidated capital requirements...

...Rule in place, and former Chair of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker said, “It's ridiculous...

...do proprietary trading. And that the Fed supervisors—remember, he had bee...

...he had been president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, so these would've bee...

...was it would all have been done by the Federal Reserve . What I said to him was, “If that ha...

...among five agencies, of which the Fed was actually—we were probably third i...

...rather than rule side and it all be at the Fed . That just wasn't the mindset o...

...for not wanting to give everything to the Fed . Thanks so much for that, and thank...

...I've read, as the senior member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, you swore in Dr...

...Janet Yellen as the new chair of the Federal Reserve in January of 2014. I wanted to ask yo...

...that Janet was the first woman to chair the Fed . That initial swearing in was just ...

...that she was the first woman to chair the Fed to obscure the fact that she, in man...

...that she, in many ways, kind of was the Fed , or she embodied what the Fed could b...

...of was the Fed, or she embodied what the Fed could be in all its differen...

...as anybody has ever been to be chair of the Fed when she took over. Dodd-Frank ha...

...the position of vice chair of the Federal Reserve for regulation. While that positio...

...the—so it used to be that the chair of the Fed de facto got to decide who the to...

...with who was serving that role at the Fed [laughs], which is to say me, tha...

...Conference in which you said that the Federal Reserve needed to “broaden the perimeter o...

...important so that markets would think the Fed will support you if you get in troubl...

...250 billion. And I guess now the way the Fed has figured that out is, they do i...

...of 2015 there was some debate at the Federal Reserve about raising interest rates. At tha...

...to lend more. And our job was, and the Fed 's job still is, to figure out as bes...

...wanted to ask about leaving the Federal Reserve . In February of 2017 it was announce...

...was announced that you would leave the Federal Reserve in April, five years before the end o...

...wanted to ask: As you prepared to leave the Fed in the spring of 2017, did you thin...

...one of them was born when I was at the Fed . He wasn't [laughs] aware of what wa...

...could've done more. In terms of at the Fed , this was just—part of what the...

...At the same time, at a place like the Fed , particularly for a non-economist lik...

...confirmation hearings to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. You said tha...

...at macro sets of data. Particularly at the Fed , you're looking at the data sets, an...

...formally nominated you to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Had you me...

...to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve . Did you have any reservations abou...

...will make them tremendous assets at the Fed .” I'm curious: At the time, in 2010...

...recalibrate, the priorities of the Federal Reserve ? Completely. You might remember...

...Dov, or maybe your research will show, the Fed was under a lot of attack for no...

...approach should be one where the Fed targets GDP directly or target...

...to do anything if she's a governor on the Fed ? Is she going to be able to hold he...

...learned many years later, when I was at the Fed , that the interns didn't know what t...

...for getting a new voice there at the Fed . That's such a great story. Thanks s...

...you were sworn in by the chair of the Federal Reserve , Ben Bernanke, in September of 2010...

...your portfolio was constructed at the Federal Reserve . When you first arrived, were yo...

...required of all the governors at the Federal Reserve ? Yes. First, I want to say one thin...

...the embrace of them. Then, getting to the Fed —I don't recall, Dov, having muc...

...interesting thing that came out of the Fed in this era, too, was the creation of ...

...to have a new committee set up by the Fed —that doesn't happen that often. He di...

...question on what my involvement was at the Fed . In addition to the consume...

...governor for helping administer the Federal Reserve board and the system, and that was ...

...before, albeit a smaller one than the Fed . He said, “Sarah, I think you're it...

...housing crisis during your time at the Federal Reserve . In January 2012, the Federal Reserv...

...Federal Reserve. In January 2012, the Federal Reserve sent the Senate Committee on Banking...

...during the first part of your time at the Fed . I wanted to start by asking what you...

...to this player. By the time I got to the Fed , I was able to bring that knowledg...

...being able to weave those concerns into the Fed 's report turned out to b...

...what you found in your work at the Fed ? Part of it was operational error...

...quantify what was happening. Had the Federal Reserve routinely studied housing, or was th...

...analysis and research going on at the Fed that were looking at housing. ...

...at housing. I remember coming into the Fed and asking one of the economists there...

...rates.” I asked this because I was at the Fed , which has all the data, right...

...of Congress? I don't. When I was at the Fed , I remember thinking, “This is late....

...I do remember one reaction was, “Should the Fed be doing this? Should the Fed b...

...“Should the Fed be doing this? Should the Fed be engaged in looking at housing? Ho...

...at housing? How is housing related to the Fed 's dual mandate of price stability an...

...people were wondering, “What's the Fed doing in this space?” That's reall...

...serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve , you talked about the organizationa...

...when you first arrived at the Federal Reserve ? Yes, you're right, Dov. Wha...

...Just for banks alone, you have the Federal Reserve ; you have the Comptroller of th...

...I read that in 2012, you dissented as a Federal Reserve governor in approving th...

...a bit about that, that the staff at the Federal Reserve developed term sheets, which summarize...

...after that feedback was exchanged with Federal Reserve staff members, was there, broadl...

...you during your time as governor at the Federal Reserve . You once told an interviewer that th...

...an interviewer that the work of the Federal Reserve was critiqued by a great variety o...

...to ask: Did your appointment as a Federal Reserve governor change how you moved throug...

...when all of sudden people understood the Fed . Up until the financial crisis, ...

...poll people in the American public on the Fed , and they might say interest rates, o...

...a perennial challenge for the Fed . It's a challenge in its role i...

...heart of the regulatory work that the Federal Reserve and the other agencies do, because tha...

...during your time at the Federal Reserve , you'd also talked about an increas...

...was, on one occasion, “not part of the Federal Reserve 's mandate to address inequalit...

...did you think of it was unusual for a Federal Reserve governor to discuss poverty an...

...issues, and I recall starting at the Federal Reserve right at the time when Occupy Wal...

...and saying to some of the people inside the Fed , some of the economists, What do yo...

...How does this discussion illuminate the Fed 's understanding of the economy? How d...

...of the economy? How do the models that the Fed uses to understand the economy reflec...

...inequality with the economists at the Fed was to learn more about whether or no...

...or didn't have, during your time at the Federal Reserve in getting inequality into th...

...be somebody who was going to be at the Federal Reserve her whole life, or again, and ...

...was obvious,” but it wasn't obvious at the Fed , and you take these institutions a...

...the very early speeches to come out of the Fed on income and wealth inequality. Thi...

...the times we were living in. To go to the Fed at such a time, in the midst of suc...

...between the White House and the Fed . I can't even recount many times, i...

...work of monetary policy and the work of the Fed , so I can't tell you exactly when. ...

...embraced them in my decision making at the Fed . From that perspective, it was ...

...of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve ? No, I don't recall changing m...

...that are not within the focus of a Federal Reserve governor, and I recall needing t...

...Yellen been appointed to be chair of the Fed by then? Yes. Yes. I read that yo...

...regulatory space. Can we know how the Fed looks at it? How does the SEC look a...

...as a regulator in Maryland, at the Federal Reserve , and at the Treasury Department. I...

...process to serve as a governor on the Federal Reserve Board, you wrote that you had “alway...

...there ways in which your work at the Federal Reserve and the Treasury had illuminate...

...hearings to become a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. You were aske...

...a “Raskin mark” on governance at the Federal Reserve . At that time, you said you weren'...

...inform the work that you did at the Federal Reserve . As you know, this interview is for ...

...on your work, both in Maryland, at the Federal Reserve , and at the Treasury Department...