The Dallas Fed has a new chief – with crisis management experience
Months after its former chairman retired amid scandal — and in the face of soaring inflation — the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has appointed a new chairman with a history of driving through the crisis.
Lorie Logan was named the regional bank’s new president and chief executive this week, eight months after the sudden retirement of Robert Kaplan, who has come under fire for trading millions of dollars in stocks as the central bank was undertaking an unprecedented intervention in financial markets to combat the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Logan, 49, is vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where she oversees the Fed’s massive securities portfolio and directs the implementation of monetary policy.
She was employed by the Federal Reserve for more than two decades, serving in high profile roles during three major crises: COVID-19, the financial crash of 2008 – which prompted Logan to end maternity leave early — and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when Logan was one of the few employees left in Manhattan to monitor global financial markets.
His term, which begins Aug. 22, comes as the Fed continues to grapple with soaring inflation rates that have hit the Houston area particularly hard, and this month has led policymakers to hike rates of interest. Logan will not be eligible to vote until 2023, however.
In a statement, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell called her “a trusted colleague and dedicated public servant whose outstanding skills and experience with complex financial markets have informed our decisions and helped implement policy.” monetary policy to support the US economy”.
Others also praised his work.
“Lorie Logan is a great choice,” said Julia Coronado, professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin and founder of the New York-based research firm MacroPolicy Perspectives. “She has extensive experience in managing monetary policy and is known to be a cool head and an effective leader in times of crisis.”
In his previous and current roles, Logan has said little about his economic views, instead of concentrating on technique aspects of their roles. But former colleagues described her as a balanced and measured decision-maker, especially compared to her predecessor Kaplan, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker who was well known for his frequent media interviews or comments on financial markets while leading the Dallas Fed. .
“Under his leadership, Dallas is unlikely to emerge as an atypical inflation warmonger or an atypical financial stability hawk, as it has at times in the past.” Krishna Guha, who led communications for the New York Fed until 2013, told the Wall Street Journal.
Logan’s nod was not without criticism, however. Congressional Democrats previously called for a Latino to be nominated for the post because of his influence on the economies of Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana, all states with high concentrations of Hispanic residents.
Other analysts have disputed with her nomination because Logan is not an economist, or because she has spent most of her career working within the Fed system and, according to critics, may therefore be less transparent about criticism of the trade scandals that led to the departures of Kaplan and other Feds last year, including Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida.