'I'm Just Asking...': John Kennedy Doesn't Let Up On Inspector General Of Federal Reserve

it and can do its job Senator Kennedy thank you madam chair General welcome um helped me I tried to listen carefully to my colleagues but I'm still a little bit confused you you've been IG since 2011. and you do a lot of internal investigations in other words did some particular employee at the Fed not do their job is that correct yes about how many of those you think you've done well in terms of Investigations of potential misconduct or wrongdoing we have typically had a running average of about 60 or 70 of those obviously the pandemic is that total 60 or 70 years no at any point in time okay many of them are closed new ones come in through our hotline which we open up but that's typically a rough uh gauge for how many investigations we have pending since you've been there in 2011 again I'm talking internal investigations would 500 sound right I I'd have to look into it I don't want to give you enough no I'm not going to hold you to it wasn't anybody is it more you think it's more than five I I just I would I would like to look into it and get you an exact number okay um and what percentage of the case is just ballpark do you do you find wrongdoing again I it would be a wild guess and I'm not comfortable giving one to you but we can certainly look into that and develop those numbers for you um frankly I would have thought you'd had it would have that before you came today um we think it's more than a half no I would not think so more than a quarter that's where I'm uncomfortable well is it is it happen frequently that you find the wrongdoing or infrequently it's not infrequent it's not infrequent okay all right and when you find wrongdoing um are the people who committed the wrongdoing according to your report fired sometimes okay what percentage are fired again sir I would like to get you a specific number if that's what you'd like yeah I think if you could could get us that number and perhaps we could do this again um because I think people have the right to know that I'm not I mean I'm not I don't want to pick on the Federal Reserve um I just want to treat them like everybody else and and my my sense is and I think your numbers can prove or disprove this but my sense is that it is easier to divorce your spouse than get fired at the Federal Reserve and if that's the case we're entitled to know that it's a lot of money over there and that's not a criticism of anybody and tell me again about your your salary it's the average of what it's the average of both the salary and the bonus that is attributed to the other individuals who are similarly situated in terms of the organizational structure which for me is the division director level so there are 12 uh other individuals and it's the average of their salary plus bonus okay so there are about 13 of you and and your salary is set on the average of the 13. that is the case for all GFE IGS that's in the IG act as the formula to be used are the others set that way too the other the other the other the 12 other ones whose salaries are used to get your shower uh I I'm not aware of how those are established okay and do you get a bonus no I do not okay do the others get a bonus yes that's part of that average that I make okay do all 12 of the others get a bonus I I'm not I don't know the answer to that do they get a bonus when they say inflation is transitory and it's not do they still get their bonus I I don't have the answer to that okay how do we get that information requested from the Federal Reserve folks how about we call the IG can you get it for us I IG should not be in the position of getting information to turn over if we're not otherwise engaged in an audit or evaluation or investing I know you're in the Pro if I could have one more 30 more seconds I know you're in the process of uh of looking at the bank failures and and I don't I don't want you to I'm not trying to trying to put you on the spot because you don't know yet but you know I found I found two things ironic maybe irony is the wrong way way wrong word to use but as a result of these basically these base well strike that who's that ever since the Great Recession we've been very concerned as we should be about banks that are too big to fail big is dangers um I'm not against big I'm against Dom so but if some if you have an institution that is really really big and it does something dumb it hurts a lot of people nobody ever goes to jail but that's a separate story um but it looks to me like as a result of these recent failures that our big banks are getting bigger and I find that ironic again maybe their own word I don't know if you're going to look at that in your studies well Senator that strikes me as being a uh Straight Ahead policy issue or the Federal Reserve board decides what Rules of Engagement for the supervision of banks at different sizes tailoring and all of those are supervisory policy-based positions and that's and the IGS are prohibited it's really getting involved in overseeing policy um Senator Warren and I may disagree with this but uh we just screw a lot but we still like each other but see if if I ask Mr Barr that question I think the answer I'm going to get is look the problem with the bank failures is um the the management did dumb things and they were incompetent and yes some of my Regulators were not as as proactive as they should have been but it's Trump's fault Trump ain't my homework and I don't think that's a candid assessment of the situation the other thing that I find curious and I'm going to ask Mr Barr about this traditionally when Banks get in trouble you don't go out and shout it you know we're in trouble they call The Regulators so we got a problem here or The Regulators spot it and they go in and to prevent a bank run or Panic they handle it quietly and The Regulators will call around with other banks that are healthier and say can we affect a marriage here and that doesn't seem to be what's happening and as a result the healthy Banks that would normally come in and help for a price a fair price and help the the failed Bank the the the healthy Banks they're pretty smart they're waiting they're going no we don't want to come in too early let's let them go under and then we'll come in and we'll get a great deal and the taxpayers will have to guarantee all our potential losses can you look into that because if I asked Mr Barr God bless him he's just going to say it's the it's the fault of the bank presidents and Trump ate my homework so I'm looking for somebody who can help us answer those to the extent that you're asking Senator about the process of once a bank fails what does the FED what does the FDIC do uh in terms of trying to get another bank to come in and take over or buy its operations that would be kind of post failure so that wouldn't be part of our current review material loss reviews but we can consider looking into the kind of post failure issues like that or discussions that may have been had with the other Financial Regulators I'm taking too long but here's what I'm getting to and this is not a criticism of of JP Morgan or or Mr Diamond I have great respect for both of them but you know the deal they made is a good deal I'm not suggesting that that they shouldn't have made a good deal for their shareholders but the truth is the deal was so good if we still had white pages you can open up the White Pages put your handle over your eyes and pick a name and say we're giving you this deal and it would be successful because the taxpayers had to guarantee 80 of the losses and somebody needs to look at that Senator I'd be happy to come up and talk to you further about that have my team come up and discuss it with you and your staff but I want to talk about it in front of the American people okay okay well we can start by typing a conversation in your office if you'd like it's up to you thank you sir thank you Senator Kennedy Senator Kennedy I want to follow up on something you

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 2,840,403

Keywords:

Id: psXB5ScS-z4

Length: 10min 41sec (641 seconds)

Published: Thu May 18 2023