Free Republic

Another day, another contradictory economic data point.Just one business day after the latest UMichigan report showed consumer sentiment in January tumbled to the lowest level since 2011, driven in large part by the continued surge in inflation expectations which hit a whopping 5.0% for the 1-year window, the highest since 2008 and a remarkable 3.1% for the 5-10 year period, the highest since 2011 and following a relentless increase over the past two years… … moments ago the NY Fed published its own contradicting view on the critical issue of consumer inflation expectations – critical because the higher it rises,...

Bangladesh’s central bank has suggested the Federal Reserve Bank of New York had a “major lapse" in allowing hackers to transfer $101 million in transactions that it later flagged as suspicious, according to an internal document seen by Bloomberg.

What kind of natural disaster would be bad enough to completely shut down the operations of the New York Federal Reserve Bank? It would have to be something very unusual, and apparently the New York Fed is very concerned that such an event could happen. According to Reuters, the New York Fed has been transferring personnel to Chicago and building up its satellite office there just in case a “natural disaster” makes it impossible for normal operations to continue in New York…

When two weeks ago we exposed the heretofore secret location of JPM's London gold vault (located under the firm's massive L-shaped office complex at 60 Victoria Embankment) we thought: what about New York? After all, while London is the legacy financial capital of the "old world", it is in New York that the biggest private wealth of the past century is concentrated, and it is also in New York where the bulk of the hard assets backing the public money of the world's sovereigns are located, some 80 feet below ground level in the fifth sub-basement of the New York...

A Middle Eastern man tried to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in Lower Manhattan this morning, law-enforcement sources told the Post. The terrorist parked a van filled with what he thought were explosives outside of the Liberty Street building, sources said, then tried to set them off using a cell phone detonator. The suspect, who was not immediately identified, was provided the explosives from an undercover FBI agent that he met on the Internet and believed to be an accomplice, the sources said. …

[SNIP]... Intellectual discourse is, of course, extraordinarily valuable in reaching truth. In this sense, I welcome the opportunity to discuss my views on the economy and monetary policy and how they may differ with those of you here at the Fed. That said, I suspect my views are so different from those of you here today that my comments will be a complete failure in convincing you to do what I believe should be done, which is to close down the entire Federal Reserve System. My views, I suspect, differ from beginning to end... [SNIP]... I stand here confused as...

US Units of European Banks Under NY Fed Scrutiny: Report Published: Thursday, 18 Aug 2011 | 2:25 AM ET By: Reuters The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is intensifying its scrutiny of the U.S. units of Europe's biggest banks amid concerns that Europe's debt crisis could spill into the U.S. banking system, the Wall Street Journal reported citing sources familiar with the matter. The New York Fed is demanding more information from the banks about whether they have reliable access to the funds needed to operate on a day-to-day basis in the United States and, in some cases, pushing...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is part of a group of investors pressuring Bank of America Corp. to repurchase billions of dollars in home loans. The investor group owns more than 25% of the voting rights in over $47 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities issued by Countrywide Financial, the home loan giant that Bank of America /quotes/comstock/13*!bac/quotes/nls/bac (BAC 11.75, -0.60, -4.82%)  acquired in 2008. On Monday, the group wrote to Countrywide Home Loan Servicing and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!bk/quotes/nls/bk (BK 26.11, -0.51, -1.92%)  , the trustee of the mortgage securities, saying...

Bloomberg is reporting that the idea of secret banking groups that control the country and global economy are not such a crazy idea because of what came out of this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., better known as AIG. The hearing described a secretive group “deploying billions of dollars to favored banks.” The legislators are looking at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the most influential part of the federal-reserve system, due to its decision in November 2008 to buy out, for about $30 billion, insurance contracts, called credit default swaps that AIG...

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner must have felt as if he'd made a wrong turn in the Rayburn House Office Building, and instead of taking a seat before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform had wound up at the Committee on Insult and Abuse. It was a rare moment of bipartisan agreement: Republicans and Democrats alike seemed to detest the guy. They were asking about his role in the $180 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG, too-generous government payouts to AIG's business partners, and efforts to hide details of the deal from the public. But really, they were just angry...

Emails disclosed Thursday showed that the New York Fed instructed AIG to withhold from a securities filing information on the financial institutions that received taxpayer money in AIG's bailout. In other words, AIG was acting as a front for banks getting our tax dollars. The Fed will give cash to the AIG who in turn would give it to the banks. That information remained secret for months, until Congress pressured the Federal Reserve to give it up in March, over the Fed's insistence that doing so would damage market confidence.A week after Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn was beaten up...

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve Bank of New York pressed American International Group Inc. to withhold details of controversial deals that funneled billions in bailout money to Goldman Sachs and other banks. E-mails show lawyers representing the New York Fed asked AIG to remove the information from a draft financial disclosure. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was president of the New York Fed at the time. The deals were part of a massive rescue effort at the peak of the financial crisis. Lawmakers and others have accused Geithner's Fed of overpaying banks, including Goldman and Deutsche Bank, to cancel deals with...

Fresh on the heels of rumors that former union hatchet man Ron Bloom may become "czar" of US manufacturing policy, the AFL-CIO is crowing about the appointment of one of their own to run the most powerful regional Federal Reserve bank. Former electricians union boss Denis Hughes, top dog in a state where a forced unionism stanglehold has crushed the economy and employee freedom, has just been named chairman of New York's powerful financial oversight board: Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, was named chairman of the powerful Federal Reserve Bank of New York today. -- Hughes,...

By Greg Robb, MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A labor leader has moved into a high-profile position as chairman at a regional Federal Reserve bank. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington has selected Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, to serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York until the end of the year, the New York Fed announced Monday. Hughes is the first labor leader to head the New York Fed. A spokesman at the AFL-CIO office said Hughes was not taking questions.

Wow, that has to be a record for shortest tenure ever at the NY Fed. His resignation letter (below), is as Dealbook notes, rather disingenuous: Mr. Friedman was chairman of the New York Fed at the same time he was a member of Goldman’s board. He also had a substantial stake in the firm as the Fed was crafting a solution to keep Wall Street banks afloat. Denis M. Hughes, deputy chair of the board, will take over as the interim chairman, the New York Fed said in a statement. (Read Mr. Friedman’s letter after the jump.) Because the New...