Paul Volcker

  • 1979-1987 - Federal Reserve, Chair, August 1979 to August 1987
  • 2009-2011 - Economic Recovery Advisory Board, Chair, February 2009 until January 2011.
  • 1987 01 - GOV (Senate) - Title-? - (CSPAN) - Current Banking Issues
    • [PDF-?, VIDEO-CSPAN]
    • (CSPAN) - Witnesses testified on the solvency of banks and other financial services institutions
      • Note: This is an incomplete program.
    • Paul Volcker, Shelby, Dodd,  
    • Paul Volcker - Testimony - 29p
    • Senate - Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
  • 2009 0924 - GOV (Senate) - Systemic Risk and Resolution Issues / Experts’ Perspectives on Systemic Risk and Resolution Issues
    • [PDF-128p, VIDEO-CSPAN] 
    • (p7) - Paul Volcker - ".....insurance companies, which I would say parenthetically I hope better regulatory systems will be developed, maybe not as part of this legislation but next year." 
  • Dinallo thinks that we should look at insurance regulation as a model for what was done right in the financial crisis (responding to criticism from Volcker about failures in state regulation). 

2010 0610 - FCIC - FCIC memo of staff interview with Eric Dinallo, (Former New York Insurance Commissioner) - [link-Download]

  • approx 23:00 - Paul Volcker -  I have a little hobby of asking friends and acquaintances when they talk to me with experience in financial markets,
    • I say, now, outside of commercial banks, outside of insurance companies, which I would say parenthetically I hope better regulatory systems will be developed, maybe not as part of this legislation but next  year.
    • Apart from commercial banks and insurance companies, how many genuinely systemically important institutions do you think there are in the whole world, financial markets.
    • I will tell you the answer I get consistently is somewhere between 5 and 25.
    • The universe is not huge when you are talking about non-banking, non-insurance company, systemically important institutions.

2009 0924 - GOV (Senate) - Systemic Risk and Resolution Issues / Experts’ Perspectives on Systemic Risk and Resolution Issues - [PDF-128p, VIDEO-CSPAN] 

  • (ACLI) Re: Policy Loan Developments of 15 Life Insurance Companies
    • The purpose of the meeting was to discuss concerns about the liquidity conditions and the possibilities of future adverse developments.
    • The company people wanted to be sure that Mr. Volcker was fully aware of the potentials of the situation and to arrange a liaison between his staff and the staff of the Council and this aim was accomplished.
    • In the meantime, we have begun to explore the means by which the resources of the business might be applied to alleviate any temporary extreme liquidity problems that might arise for a particular member company.
    • [Bonk: PaulVolcker = Chairman of the Federal Reserve]

1980-2, NAIC Proceedings

  • 2009 0925 - GOV (House) - H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, Financial Regulatory Overhaul (CSPAN) - [PDF-223p, VIDEO-CSPAN]
    • Scott Alvarez (FRB) 
    • Barney Frank (D-MA): language is important
    • Ron Paul - Call for GAO to look at Federal Reserve
    • (p13) - Statement of Scott G. Alvarez, General Counsel, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
      • However, Congress purposely and for good reason excluded monetary policy matters, including open market and discount window operations, from GAO review.
      • Considerable experience shows that monetary policy independence, within a framework of legislatively established objectives and public accountability, tends to yield a monetary policy that best promotes price stability and economic growth. H.R. 1207 would subject monetary policy matters to GAO audit.
      • Financial market participants likely would see this as a substantial erosion of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy independence.
      • This would tend to undermine public and investor confidence in monetary policy by raising concerns that monetary policy judgments would become subject to political considerations.
    • (p38) - Mr. ALVAREZ (FRB). GAO audits government agencies, and you want the audit of a private entity.
      • I think that is something that Congress would have to change the authority of the GAO to allow.
    • (p39) - Ed Royce (R-CA) - ref: Volcker Testimony the day before
      • In his testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Mr. Volcker said—and I am just reading from Bloomberg News, but we heard him say it yesterday—
        • ‘‘Such a designation would imply government readiness to support the firms in a crisis, encouraging even more risky behavior in a phenomenon known as ‘moral hazard.’’’
      • Would you like to comment on Paul Volcker’s opposition to having the Fed walk down this road with the Administration and his concern about the consequences of that moral hazard?
  • 2009 0924 - GOV (Senate) - Systemic Risk and Resolution Issues / Experts’ Perspectives on Systemic Risk and Resolution Issues -  [PDF-128p, VIDEO-CSPAN] 
    • Paul Volcker - ".....insurance companies, which I would say parenthetically I hope better regulatory systems will be developed, maybe not as part of this legislation but next year."  (p7)
    • Paul Volcker - "I would hope this committee would look at the question of national charters for insurance companies and bring them under—at least the big ones—under a framework so that something like AIG with similar problems can’t arise in the future."  (p19)
    • Mr. PERLMUTTER. How do we resolve insurance companies? Do you know? We liquidate them through the insurance commissioner.  (p49)
  • 2009 0204 - GOV (Senate) - Modernizing the U.S. Financial Regulatory System - [CSPAN-Video
  • High-Risk Activities by Banks - VIDEO