New York Fed Needs Changes

We were all riveted last fall by the economic meltdown, which pulled down Lehman (now absorbed into Barclays (BCS Quote)) and Merrill (now part of Bank of America (BAC Quote) and forced many of us to consider the previously inconceivable outcome of a total collapse of the capital markets.

Through it all, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and then-head of the New York Fed Tiimothy Geithner, tried to orchestrate an acceptable soft landing for all market participants. Many of the most pivotal planning sessions during that dark time happened at the offices of the New York Fed.

Yet, who was watching over the New York Fed at the time? As it turns out, many of the market actors were central in the drama playing out, including Lehman head Dick Fuld, who was a New York Fed director then. ...