New York Fed Names AFL-CIO Leader as Chairman of the Board

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Washington Post

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Denis M. Hughes, a New York labor leader, was named Monday to chair the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's board of directors.

Instead of a résumé filled with corporate or financial experience, as has been typical of his predecessors, Hughes is president of the New York State AFL-CIO. He succeeds Stephen Friedman, who resigned from the job in May after drawing criticism for his simultaneous service as a director of Goldman Sachs and for buying stock in the company even after it became regulated by the New York Fed.

The board of directors of the regional Federal Reserve banks serves mainly an advisory role, sharing with bank presidents its views of economic conditions and business trends. The directors have no role in setting monetary policy or determining how banks are regulated, though they select the president of the bank, who does have those powers, subject to approval by the Fed board of governors in Washington.

In the past, the chairman of the New York Fed was usually chosen from the corporate or financial elite. Friedman was a former Goldman Sachs chief executive. Before him, Jerry I. Speyer was one of New York's leading developers of commercial real estate as head of Tishman-Speyer. Another recent chairman was Peter G. Peterson, the billionaire founder of private equity firm the Blackstone Group. A recent exception to the rule: John E. Sexton, who served between Speyer and Peterson, is president of New York University.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082403124.html?hpid=topnews

[HamdenRice]

1. And Obama appointed a United Steelworkers Union guy to be "Car Czar"

Ron Bloom, the Car Czar, is a Harvard MBA who went to work for the Steelworkers. Then he worked for an investment bank, specializing in worker owned corporations. Now he's car czar.

Now we have a union leader heading a regional Fed. This will strengthen the Fed's legislatively required role of managing the money supply to maximize the employment rate.

Change we can believe in!