So now we have a Fed Chairman of New York who is a former Union Boss. This is a puzzling and alarming development for several reasons. Union watchers, those concerned with the tyranny of card-check and eliminating the secret ballot, are wondering what kind of signals this is sending. Secondly, the public is going to see this as nothing more than bringing Jimmy Hoffa into the money printing business. Thirdly, they have to circumvent law to get the guy in.
The Federal Reserve Act (section 4, paragraph 20) says that chairmen of boards overseeing regional Fed banks need to have “tested banking experience.” Mr. Hughes, who is head of the New York branch of the AFL-CIO labor union, doesn’t seem to have that kind of banking experience on his resume. He’s spent most of his professional life as an electrician and union leader.
Certainly there is grist for a bunch of questions here. If the AFL-CIO head can be on the Federal Reserve Board, are ACORN and SEIU far behind? If not, why not? The man who helped engineer Government Motors moves right on over to help command of our monetary policy?
A little background on how the regional Fed banks works: The Federal Reserve system includes 12 regional banks that dot the nation’s landscape in places like St. Louis, Atlanta, and of course New York. The district Fed banks help to supervise private banks. Their presidents have a say in interest-rate decisions made by the Federal Open Market Committee in Washington. The boards of these banks are made up of directors who represent the private sector and they also give the Fed input on the economy from the trenches. The New York Fed, with a market desk that regularly deals with Wall Street, is unusually powerful in the system.
Now, understanding this, what do you think the policy and actions of this Federal Reserve Chairman are going to influence? Is he going to reign in fractional money supplies? Is he going to stabilize our stock market? Or is this left wing Union “boss” going to continue the same game of “bailout” and leave defaults encouraged by the government to be covered by taxpayers?
My guess, we’re going to be swimming in dollars. And that’s about all they’ll be good for soon.
Bail out by the left wing? Did I miss something? Bush brought us the bail out, he signed it and the bankers are the partly to blame for putting us in this situation to begin with.
He cannot possibly do much worse than the previous chair.
Terry,
You are right, this move should be reviewed. But hold your horses pal,
The AFL-CIO is one of the largest organizations in the country.
It’s not like we’re putting a horse breeder in charge of FEMA.
And let us not forget whose assinine politics started this mess. GW Bush and his cronies.
I laugh when I see the uproar about Khadafi in New Jersery, when it was another Halliburton/UNACAl lease deal that set us on the course for relations.
Put your pen in your pocket and load your tounge before firing your brain.