FEDERAL RESERVE Fed Chief Powell, other officials owned securities central bank bought during Covid pandemic

Amid an outcry about Federal Reserve officials owning and trading individual securities, an in-depth look by CNBC at officials’ financial disclosures found three who last year held assets of the same type the Fed itself was buying, including Chairman Jerome Powell.

None of these holdings or transactions appeared to violate the Fed’s code of conduct. But they raise further questions about the Fed’s conflict of interest policies and the oversight of central bank officials.

Powell held between $1.25 million and $2.5 million of municipal bonds in family trusts over which he is said to have no control. They were just a small portion of his total reported assets. While the bonds were purchased before 2019, they were held while the Fed last year bought $21.3 billion in munis, including one from the state of Illinois purchased by his family trust in 2016.

Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren held between $151,000 and $800,000 worth of real estate investment trusts that owned mortgage-backed securities. He made as many as 37 separate trades in the four REITS while the Fed purchased almost $700 billion in MBS.

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin held $1.35 million to $3 million in individual corporate bonds purchased before 2020. They include bonds of Pepsi, Home Depot and Eli Lilly. The Fed last year opened a corporate bond-buying facility and purchased $46.5 billion of corporate bonds.

Among those questions: Should the Fed have banned officials from holding, buying and selling the same assets the Fed itself was buying last year when it dramatically widened the types of assets it would purchase in response to the pandemic?

The Fed’s own code of conduct says officials “should be careful to avoid any dealings or other conduct that might convey even an appearance of conflict between their personal interests, the interests of the system, and the public interest.”

In response to CNBC questions asked in the process of our research, a Fed spokesperson released a statement Thursday saying Powell ordered a review last week of the Fed’s ethics rules surrounding “permissible financial holdings and activities by senior Fed officials.”

A Fed spokesperson told CNBC that Powell had no say over the central bank’s individual municipal bond purchases and no say over the investments in his family’s trusts. A Fed ethics officer determined that the holdings did not violate government rules.

Rosengren has announced he would sell his individual positions and stop trading while he is president. Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan, who actively traded millions of dollars of individual stocks, also said he would no longer trade and would sell his individual positions. But he said his trade did not violate Fed ethics rules.

A spokesman for Rosengren told CNBC that he “made sure his personal saving and investment transactions complied with what was permissible under Fed ethics rules.”

But Dennis Kelleher, CEO of the nonprofit Better Markets, said if some of these Fed actions are not against the rules, the rules need to change.

“To think that such trading is acceptable because it is supposedly allowed by Fed’s current policies only highlights that the Fed’s policies are woefully deficient,” Kelleher told CNBC.

While trading by Rosengren and Kaplan was not conducted during the so-called blackout period, when Fed officials are not allowed to talk publicly about monetary policy or trade, Kelleher said during a crisis like last year, “the whole year should be considered a blackout period” because Fed officials are constantly talking and crafting policy in response to fast-moving events.

Powell and others held municipal bonds which are insured and highly regulated securities that are used for their tax exempt benefits.

The Federal reserve also buys municipal bonds to inject low risk liquidity into the economy buy not the same bonds as Powell or other owned so it would have no price impact on their portfolio. Normally these investments are held to maturity to maximize the tax free interest benefits anyway so the price fluctuation is irrelevant.

This story is a hit piece by those in the Biden crime family that want to remove Powell and install their own corrupt replacement.

Thank you for referencing that article American Number 181269513. Please note that the following critique is directed at the article and not at you.

As a side note to this Federal Reserve-related thread, please consider the following.

Patriots are reminded that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention gave the power to regulate the value of money uniquely to Congress, whether post-17th Amendment ratification career lawmakers want to take responsibility for that power or not.

"Article I, Section 8, Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof [emphasis added], and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;"

But what's even worse than abdicating its powers to non-elected bureaucrats, consider that citizens have always had the constitutionally express power to indirectly regulate the value of money, evidenced by the enumerated power of citizens to elect members of the House of Representatives, and now senators, regardless that the corrupt federal government no longer recognizes this enumerated voting power of citizens.

In other words, by wrongly abdicating its power to regulate money and other powers to non-elected bureaucrats, Congress has unconstitutionally weakened the voting power of ordinary citizens imo.

Insights welcome.

The remedy for unconstitutionally big, alleged election-stealing, Democratic Party-pirated federal and state governments oppressing everybody under its boots...

Consider that all the states can effectively “secede” from the unconstitutionally big federal government by doing the following.

Patriots need to primary federal and state elected officials who don't send voters email ASAP that clearly promises to do the following.

Federal and state lawmakers need to promise in their emails to introduce resolutions no later than 100 days after start of new legislative sessions that proposes an amendment to the Constitution to the states, the amendment limited to repealing the 16th and ill-conceived 17th Amendments.

Again, insights welcome.

Consider that all the states can effectively “secede” from the unconstitutionally big federal government by doing the following. Patriots need to primary federal and state elected officials who don't send voters email ASAP that clearly promises to do the following. Federal and state lawmakers need to promise in their emails to introduce resolutions no later than 100 days after start of new legislative sessions that proposes an amendment to the Constitution to the states, the amendment limited to repealing the 16th and ill-conceived 17th Amendments.

My 2 cents.

Assuming enough Patriots can get together and primary federal and state elected officials who would "promise" repealing the 16th and ill-conceived 17th Amendments, there is no guarantee they would once elected. This is Washington after all.

Therefore, Texas should lead and secede, followed by about 24 or 25 other states, and we start anew.

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