Resumé Multiple Choice, or,
Did the Dallas Fed Pull a “Cheney?”**
In other financial news this week (the stock market swoon was the big story), the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas selected a new President.
Here’s what the Bank said it was looking for in their new leader:
“The Bank’s search committee considered a broad pool of excellent candidates to ensure we met our goal of finding someone who has a deep understanding of the economy, financial system and monetary policy ” yet who also sincerely appreciates the impact decisions made by the Federal Reserve have on people from all walks of life.”
–Dallas Fed board chair Renu Khator, chancellor of the University of Houston.
Now, see if you can guess the credentials of the candidate they chose:
A. The founder and president of a local Texas bank;
B. A Texas entrepreneur who started an innovative financial services company;
C. A single Mom who worked her way through law school and rose to become a top bank regulator in Texas;
D. A former Goldman Sachs Vice Chairman who spent most of his career in New York prior to becoming a professor at Harvard Business School.
Answer: “D.”
Yup, only within the insular, not-so-independent world of the Fed does tapping a(nother!) Goldman Sachs alum count as “diversity.”
Can you say, “regulatory capture?”
And exactly what is your definition of “all walks of life?”
Two other extenuating circumstances exacerbating what might be perceived to be a public relations problem for the Dallas Fed: 1) the new President has no ties to Dallas or Texas generally; and 2) he was on the Board of Directors of the firm, Heidrick & Struggles, that conducted the search (he recused himself).
P.S.: The new President is Robert Steven Kaplan (no relation).
**Richard Cheney famously headed then-Texas Governor George W. Bush’s Vice Presidential search committee before effectively picking . . himself.
