Stanley Fischer defends the revolving door between Wall Street and the Fed -without mentioning he's part of it
REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen
Still, like Draghi and Bernanke, both of whom have had stints in finance, Fischer is hardly a pure academic. He spent three years working on Wall Street, where he amassed a small fortune.
When he made financial disclosures required of his nomination to the Fed's board in 2014, Fischer revealed he had as much as $56.3 million in assets, making him one of the richest officials at the central bank.
This led to an awkward moment during a CNBC interview when, after delivering a strong condemnation of efforts to roll back financial reform, Fischer was asked: "Do you think it's appropriate that it's being drafted by ex-bankers and current bankers advising them? As a regulator?"
"Well, look," he sputtered. "The people who know about the banking system tend to be bankers and some academics. You need experts, I know there's a fashion that experts are out of style, but you need them. And that's where you're going to find them. So that's alright."
Fischer did not mention his three years at Citi. He played no small role and during a time when the bank was engaged in the dubious mortgage practices that would help fuel the financial crisis, and require, in Citi's case, multiple taxpayer bailouts. From February 2002 to April 2005, he was vice chairman of Citigroup. He was also Head of the Public Sector Group from February 2004 to April 2005, Chairman of the Country Risk Committee, and President of Citigroup International. Not bad for a three-year run.
Fischer's proximity to bankers may explain why he did not feel he was crossing an ethical line by giving a private speech to financial industry executives at the Brookings Institution earlier this month, when neither the existence of the speech or its contents were divulged to the press or the public. At that event, Fischer also took questions on interest rates, even though even the smallest comments by top Fed officials on monetary policy can be highly market-moving.
- 2 states where home prices are falling because there are too many houses and not enough buyers
- US buys 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Russia's ally costing on average less than $20,000 each, report says
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- 9 health benefits of drinking sugarcane juice in summer
- 10 benefits of incorporating almond oil into your daily diet
- From heart health to detoxification: 10 reasons to eat beetroot
- Why did a NASA spacecraft suddenly start talking gibberish after more than 45 years of operation? What fixed it?
- ICICI Bank shares climb nearly 5% after Q4 earnings; mcap soars by ₹36,555.4 crore
- Nothing Phone (2a) blue edition launched
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market