NPR’s “This American Life” devoted an important hour to the Fed. Read the transcript or listen to the audio. I wish it were better news . . .
. . . what Carmen Segarra witnessed going on at the Fed was so alarming, she started secretly making recordings of what she experienced as a bank examiner –recordings that raise serious questions about whether the Fed has changed enough since 2008 to protect us from another financial disaster.
This is a spoiler but just to put it out there: things went very badly for Carmen Segarra in her new job. She’s currently suing the Fed over this. So what you’re going to hear today is a dispute between an employee and her bosses, though of course what we’re interested in is not the he-said-she-said of all that but in what her secret recordings show us about how the Fed works.
Throughout this hour you’re going to hear her recordings of what she saw at the Fed and you’re going to hear more from David Beim’s 2009 report, which lays out the way the Fed should be operating. He explained the changes the Fed needed to make. With Carmen’s tapes, we get to see if they actually made those changes. And it is not reassuring. From WBEZ Chicago, it’s This American Life, I’m Ira Glass. Stay with us.
