PLOTTING EXPOSED?: Study Finds Increase in Trips Between the Fed and Banksters Around FOMC Meetings

A new study has found a jump in New York City taxi cab activity between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and major Wall Street banks around the time of central bank policy meetings, and the study’s author says the findings suggest an increase in informal communications between Fed employees and individuals in the private sector could be occurring, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The study was conducted by University of Chicago Booth School of Business Ph.D. candidate David Finer, 33 years old, and made available by the school. His research is in a working paper that is being made available today.

Finer used government-provided GPS coordinates, vehicle information and other travel data to track taxi traffic between the addresses of the New York Fed and major banks. His research pointed to increased traffic between the destinations around lunch and late evening hours, which suggested informal meetings were taking place, Finer wrote in his paper. He found elevated numbers of rides around Federal Open Market Committee meetings, with most of them coming after the gathering.

“Their geography, timing and passenger counts are consistent with an increase in planned meetings causally linked to the incidence of monetary-policy activities,” he wrote. “I find highly statistically significant evidence of increases in meetings at the New York Fed late at night and in off-site meetings during typical lunch hours,” which is suggestive of “informal or discreet communication.”

Finer’s analysis rests on yellow-cab data tracking rides between 2009 and 2014 provided by the New York City taxi regulators. The data doesn’t include information from ride-sharing companies or from the other types of hired cars.

 -Robert Wenzel