Tuesday, April 4, 2017
HOT HOT Richmond Fed President Resigns After Admitting Leaking Fed Policy Deliberations
Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker has just admitted he leaked confidential Fed monetary policy information to Medley Global Advisers, a publisher of macroeconomic analysis for institutions such as hedge funds and asset managers. It is owned by The Financial Times.
.He has resigned effective immediately. He had planned on retiring in October.
There is no immediate indication if Lacker will face criminal prosecution. The FBI has been probing the Fed's 2012 leak to Medley since 2015.
The leak was apparently made to Medley Global's Regina Schleiger, a close friend of Fed chair Janet Yellen. Early suspicion turned to Yellen as being behind the market moving leak because of her relationship with Schleiger.
Specifically, the leak involved information about deliberations surrounding the reasoning behind the Fed's actions in its bond-buying programs.
-RW
UPDATE 1
Here is Lacker's full statement:
UPDATE 2
Richmond Fed Statement on Jeffrey Lacker's Announcement
The Federal Reserve places a high priority on safeguarding information. We expect every employee to comply with all relevant policies and procedures, as well as our standards of conduct. Employees must review and acknowledge our policies annually. Once our Bank’s Board of Directors learned of the outcome of the government investigations, they took appropriate actions.
We are focused on moving forward within our organization—and were already underway with our presidential search, following Jeffrey Lacker’s announcement in January to retire in 2017. This search process will continue as scheduled. In the interim, First Vice President Mark Mullinix is serving as the Bank’s acting president.
UPDATE 3
A full reading of Lacker's statement does not appear to let Yellen of the hook. Lacker indicates that the analyst (likely Schleiger) already had the information and that he lied to the FBI about that. So the question remains, who gave the information to Schleiger in the first place. Janet any thoughts?
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Two tier justice baby!
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BREAKING: No charges will be brought against outgoing Richmond Fed President Lacker, his attorney tells CNBC. http://cnb.cx/2oEVJUa
Why bother having rules or laws?...Oh that's right...for the little people.
How much did this asshole make off these informational exchanges? Probably gets some sort of pension too. End the Fed! And public tarring and feathering of all the economists working with the beast.
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