00:00As you know the Fed imposes a blackout period where senior Fed officials are
00:04prohibited from talking about economic issues with outsiders. The idea is to
00:09quote, reinforce the public's confidence in the transparency and integrity of the
00:14monetary policy process. In other words, no one gets some special insider
00:20information from the Fed. But shortly after your first FOMC meeting as chair,
00:26right in the middle of the blackout period, the Fed's vice chair for supervision,
00:32Michelle Bowman, was reportedly the featured guest at a secret dinner hosted
00:38by Bank of America for its hedge fund and Wall Street clients. At this closed-door
00:44dinner, she reportedly spoke about both monetary policy topics and regulatory
00:50policy. Now I've called on the Inspector General to review her conduct, but you're
00:56the guy in charge. As chair, you set the tone on culture. Did Vice Chair Bowman
01:03provide any non-public information to the attendees at that secret dinner or discuss
01:10any regulatory policy matters that are subject to open comment periods? Senator, I
01:17agree with with one of the premises of your question, which is I do set the
01:21culture. Good. After my very first week at the Fed, I sent a letter to the 21,000
01:28people at the Fed outlining our culture. I appreciate that, but we have very
01:31limited time and a very strict chairman. So can you just answer the question
01:35about the vice chair and her secret meeting? Sure. I'm happy to, to the extent I
01:41can share it with you. The vice chair has been an excellent colleague in my first
01:46seven weeks. I'm aware of the letter you sent to the Inspector General out of an
01:51enormous respect for him. His investigation, what he chooses to do with it, I'm
01:56going to leave to him to do without trying to micromanage that. So you'd be
02:00interested in the judgments that he, that he comes to. So you will support his
02:04investigation. Have you made your own investigation? Did you ask her if she
02:09spoke at a secret meeting during the blackout period? I agree with the
02:13suggestion that the Inspector General is an independent actor and I know very
02:18interested in his decision. You just said you're the guy in charge. Did you ask her
02:23about the secret meeting that took place? Did you ask her? I can answer a
02:30simple question, which is I wasn't at the meeting. I don't know the facts. No one
02:35thinks you were. But I'd be very interested in the fact finding being done by an
02:39independent inspector general. Did you care enough to ask, how can you be chair and not ask your own vice
02:44chair whether or not she violated the blackout period, violated the law?
02:50I think it'd be inappropriate for me to prejudge facts that are being discovered by an independent actor. I don't
02:55know how you prejudge them if you don't ask.
02:58Well, I don't know how to prejudge them if I wasn't in the attendance of a meeting. So just tell
03:02me, did you ask?
03:04She's been an excellent colleague. Did you ask? I've asked her a lot of things about supervision and regulation because
03:10we've been busy doing a lot of real work over the last seven weeks.
03:13I've got to say, I'm going to take the same time you did. I just got to say. You hope
03:17so.
03:17The tone that you are setting is one that seems to invite corruption and that's going to be a real
03:23problem.
03:23We've had seven weeks, Senator Warren, and we've set a tone of performance, accountability, responsibility, and integrity.
03:32Senator Alves has the floor.
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