Welcome to New York Week: Bill Dudley, President of the New York Fed
Welcome to New York Week: Bill Dudley, President of the New York Fed
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
JEREMY HOBSON We are going to be broadcasting from New York for the next few months. And thought we’d start things off this week with some of the people who make the economy here what it is. We’ll start today with the President Bill Dudley, he’s the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The New York Fed is the largest of the 12 regional banks in the Federal Reserve System. In addition to overseeing economic activity in the New York region it implements the monetary policy that gets decided in Washington.
Bill Dudley, welcome to Marketplace.
BILL DUDLEY: Great to be here.
HOBSON: Well, let me ask you first — the Fed is a very complicated place. When you’re neighbor or somebody in the elevator who doesn’t know you stops you and asks you what is it that you do, what do you tell them?
DUDLEY: I say I work at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. I usually don’t go much beyond that. I had an interesting experience about a year ago in a snow storm going back from Newark to my house. My wife and I had to grab a taxi the best we could. We shared a cab and I said to the person who asked me what I did, I said I work for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. And he said, “Oh yeah, I bet you’re the President” and I said, “Well, yeah actually I am.”
HOBSON: What’s been the scariest moment for you in the past couple of years?
DUDLEY: Well I think the fall of 2008 after the failure laymen were basically financial markets really stopped functioning in any reasonable way.
HOBSON: Were you pulling all-nighters and stuff like that?
DUDLEY: We were pretty busy.
[LAUGHS]
HOBSON: That’s a good way of putting it. OK a quick lightening round here. Quick questions, quick answers: When was the last time you took the subway?
DUDLEY: I took the subway this weekend. I come into the theater a lot. I live in New Jersey, but I come into the theater a lot. So when my wife and I come into the theater, we’ll offen times we either walk or we take the subways.
HOBSON: Favorite thing about New York?
DUDLEY: Favorite thing about New York — I just love walking around the city. I also like the cosmopolitan aspect of the city, whether there’s just so many people from so many different places.
HOBSON: Least favorite thing about New York?
DUDLEY: Least favorite thing about New York — prices of real estate are very expensive. It would be nice if this city was gray and you could buy real estate. You know — a place to live.
HOBSON: What was your first job in New York City?
DUDLEY: Regulatory Economist at JPMorgan.
HOBSON: Have you ever been laid off from a job?
DUDLEY: No, I haven’t.
HOBSON: Which organization is more secretive: your former employer Goldman Sacs or the New York Federal Reserve?
DUDLEY: I’m not sure which one I would pick. I think both organizations had a little bit of — probably we’re not that proactive on the communications front historically. I think both are becoming a lot more proactive for different sets of reasons.
HOBSON: Bill Dudley, President of the New York Fed. Thank you so much for joining us on our Welcome to New York Week on Marketplace.
DUDLEY: OK thank you very much.
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