Friday, May 21, 2010

A Personal Visit to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

By Megan Duffield

Silver Circle Movie crew had the opportunity to get an insider look at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston yesterday. The funny thing is that we were just shooting some clips in front of the Fed last week and were escorted away by security, but this time around we lost the cameras and put the suit jackets on...you know, to blend in.

There was a luncheon put together by a small, somewhat elite economic group called Boston Economic Club (BEC).  Upon entering the Fed, a place where I spend my time on the outside waving my "End the Fed" sign, we went through the ol' security routine and strolled through metal detectors. We were secretly hoping to see how high tech their security was and if they would question us due to last week's appearance outside with our cameras.

One member of the group thought it would be fun to "accidently" get off on the wrong floor and mosey around to see what we could find, however it was anti-climactic and security didn't seem to mind. So we headed up to the lunch where we were hearing the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Eric Rosengren.

The luncheon room was filled with the usual stuffiness of a crowded subway, with the same faces you see in the media when banking and investors are brought up. I can say however, for a corrupt institution the salmon dinner was delicious.

Rosengren put together a presentation filled with the stats from past recessions and juxtaposed them to the present day recession. The most noticeable difference anyone could interpret was the length of the current recession compared to 1981, 1990, and 2001. In 2008 some were predicting the recession would be above average in length and show a slow recovery process yet will most likely recover by mid-2009. Here we are in 2010 and despite some positive language things don't seem to be looking up, especially after the recent events in the market.

Rosengren expressed his major concerns about the economy:

Read the rest here.

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