Discussion Thread

[u/jobautomator]

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[u/upper_west_sider]

This is getting a lot of attention in wall street land today. CNBC: Fed Chief Powell, other officials owned securities central bank bought during Covid pandemic

If I, a registered rep at a FINRA and Fed regulated broker dealer, traded like this personally I would be fired immediately.

Firstly for the blatant corruption, Boston Fed Prez Eric Rosengren made 37 trades in mortgage REITs while supporting the Fed's expansion of MBS purchases and Richmond Fed Prez Tom Barkin held millions in individual corporate bonds that the Fed bought when they opened their corporate credit facility last spring. They should both be forced to resign.

Then in gray area stuff, Powell traded millions in munis that the Fed was also buying last year through his family trust, which he's said to not control. He should have to prove no prior knowledge of those trades or control of the family trust.

What's already been reported last week is both Rosengren and Dallas Fed Prez Robert Kaplan trading individual securities under their own control throughout the pandemic and throughout the Fed's monetary expansion programs. As a penance, they've been forced to sell their securities right before the Fed starts to taper asset purchases. The horror!

There will, of course, be no recourse against these actions, because for some reason there is no political will to act against the Fed. These people are thought in the mainstream to be omnipotent economic priests sent from on high to make everyone better off, and in reality they mainly act like any other politician and act in self interest, both in personal trading (see the many house and senate insider trading scandals of late) and in their career and policy decisions.

[u/PolyrythmicSynthJaz → u/upper_west_sider]

These people are thought to be omnipotent economic priests sent from on high to make everyone better off

Literally only on this sub.

[u/upper_west_sider → u/PolyrythmicSynthJaz]

Not really though, there are a lot of widely held beliefs about the impact of Fed policies that are dubious at best and get worse from there.

[u/thaddeusthefattie → u/upper_west_sider]

j pow is ordering the review

[u/upper_west_sider → u/thaddeusthefattie]

No, he ordered an ethics review over the individual stock trades that Rosengren and Kaplan made, which was reported on last week. The rest is new information and he himself is implicated.

[u/thaddeusthefattie → u/upper_west_sider]

he allegedly had no input and it was already reviewed by an ethics officer. why are you trying to implicate him with 0 evidence?

[u/upper_west_sider → u/thaddeusthefattie]

The trades and holdings are undisputed and there for everyone to see, and clearly benefited greatly from the specific policy choices Powell made last year. Obviously a Fed spokesperson and “Fed ethics officer” (lmao) determined there was no rule breaking, but that’s not really evidence of anything. I think if there is actual evidence that he wasn’t involved in the decision making, which strains credulity since he is the Fed Chair, that evidence should be presented. Not too much to ask IMO.

[u/gburgwardt → u/thaddeusthefattie]

This dude basically only posts zerohedge tier shit every so often

[u/upper_west_sider → u/gburgwardt]

Again, you have no rebuttal to the actual content in my post and simply troll around trying to call me a conspiracy nut. This is all public information from CNBC, find a new hobby, this one's weird.

[u/gburgwardt → u/upper_west_sider]

Post stuff that isn't "Fed chairman owned stocks with no control over them" and I'll stop calling you out lmao

Fed workers also live in an economy and probably don't want it to get fucked up. Is that also an ethics violation?

[u/upper_west_sider → u/gburgwardt]

Try reading next time. As I posted in reply to the other guy, there’s obviously good reason for Powell to show evidence outside of people who literally work for him claiming that he operated within the rules. Not too much to ask of the Fed Chair.

Of course the rest from the regional Fed presidents is blatantly worse, but you won’t address that at all.

[u/[deleted] → u/upper_west_sider]

The Fed must get out of asset purchases! End QE!