New York Fed Chairman Stephen Friedman resigns

[deminks]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Stephen Friedman, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's board of directors, has resigned effectively immediately.

Friedman was the subject of a recent Wall Street Journal story that raised questions about his ties to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Goldman Sachs late last year received quick Fed approval to become a bank holding company. During that time, Friedman sat on Goldman's board and had a large holding in the company, a violation of Fed policy, the Journal reported.

But the New York Fed's executive vice president and general counsel Thomas Baxter says Friedman's purchases of Goldman Sachs stock in December 2008 and January 2009 "did not violate any Federal Reserve statute, rule or policy."

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fed8-2009may08,0,7796328.story?track=rss

---

text of letter of resignation here:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-York-Fed-chair-Stephen-cnnm-15176185.html?.v=3

[tomm2thumbs]

1. wonder what job he'll jump into now that his work is done

I can only imagine

[lazer47]

7. Probably the next CEO of GM,or Chrysler

[radfringe]

15. take your pick

the entire corporate world is one big incestuous family

[No Elephants]

17. Curator of the Bush Library?

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Baby Snooks]

3. Does the word ethics ever come into play any more?

But the New York Fed's executive vice president and general counsel Thomas Baxter says Friedman's purchases of Goldman Sachs stock in December 2008 and January 2009 "did not violate any Federal Reserve statute, rule or policy."
___________________________________________________________________

What about ethics? Conflicts-of-interest? Betraying the public trust?

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. "Friedman was the subject of a recent Wall Street Journal story that raised questions..."

Wait. I though the Wall Street Journal was just a tool of the corporate elite and in bed with the oligarchs??!?

[SOS]

8. Sometimes the oligarchs do hit jobs on each other.

nt

[girl gone mad]

10. The WSJ's news division and their editorial dept.

are two completely different animals.

[w4rma]

14. Didn't Rupert Murdoch buy the WSJ, recently? (nt)

[FailureToCommunicate]

21. Yes, but so far he has kept the good reporters for whom people actually read the paper.

[FailureToCommunicate]

20. I should have put "sarcasm" on my post. I do know the Journal's split personality

I know intimately, 'cause my brother was one of The Journal's best investigative reporters. Unfortunately for The Journal and for all who value hard hitting, accurate journalism my brother just died last Friday
from cancer. His type of fair but unflinching muckraking will be sorely missed.

Here is a link to some of his stories over the past while:
http://online.wsj.com/public/page/johnwilke.html

[robinlynne]

11. This story was on DU a while ago, written by SPitzer, I think. So it was already out in

the open before the Wall Street Journal wrote it....

[FailureToCommunicate]

19. The DU piece was two days ago and Spitzer credits the Journal with the reporting. nt

[robinlynne]

25. oops. I stand corrected.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

23. but didn't WSJ get the story from a blogger?

[FailureToCommunicate]

24. Beats me. But good reporters protect their sources, or they dry up and blow away.

[benld74]

5. 5 bucks says he gets a job before a friend of mine does

[Robbien]

22. That's the problem. He already had two jobs. One at Goldman and one working for the Fed

He is keeping his board position at Goldman while giving up the Fed Reserve job.

The work he did at the Fed Reserve makes his position at Goldman much more lucrative.

[Robbien]

6. His resignation letter states the Fed gave him a waiver to keep on the job

So everyone at the Fed knew there is a huge conflict of interest otherwise why issue a waiver?


But now that he has been caught he says he is leaving because it his ties to Goldman is a "distraction". No sir. It is not a distraction, it is illegal. Waiver or no waiver.

[robinlynne]

12. I think Goldman should return our moeny, don't you?

[chill_wind]

9. Well well well. "Exhibit A. " To the GP

Here's an understatement...

"In recent days, Friedman's dual role has become Exhibit A for what critics perceive as a too-cozy relationship between the New York Fed, which serves as the central bank's eyes and ears on Wall Street, and the bankers it oversees."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/07/AR2009050704276.html?hpid=sec-business

[sansf]

13. Financier incest

Read the piece on Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2217811/

Up until now I gave Obama a short pass on his econ picks. By now he has to know how embedded they all are in their goal of keeping this heist going.

I know Cuomo is working on it, but I am very depressed.

[No Elephants]

16. I just tried to find this guy's wiki and I couldn't.

[Joanne98]

18. Here's his Muckety map

[DCKit]

26. What's the point? It's not as if Goldman's going to run out of people to replace him. n/t