William C. Dudley


William C. Dudley is an American economist who served as the president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2009-2018 and as vice-chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee. He was appointed to the position on January 27, 2009, following the confirmation of his predecessor, Timothy F. Geithner, as United States Secretary of the Treasury.

Early life and education

Dudley attended the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Subsequently, he earned a B.A. degree from New College of Florida in 1974, and a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982.

Career

Dudley worked at Goldman Sachs from 1986 to 2007 where he held the position of chief U.S. economist. In 2007 he was hired by then-president of the New York Federal Reserve Timothy Geithner to oversee the department in charge of buying and selling government securities.
According to salary figures released in 2010, Dudley was paid "more than $410,000 per year", making him one of the two highest-paid of the twelve presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks.
In 2019, Dudley joined the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University as a senior research scholar. He is a member of the Group of Thirty and the Council on Foreign Relations. He was a member of the Bank for International Settlements Board of Directors from 2009 to 2018 and chaired the BIS Committee on Payment Settlement Systems and the Committee on the Global Financial System.
Dudley worked closely with Chairman Bernanke, Chair Yellen, and Chairman Powell as Vice-Chairman of the FOMC during 2009-2018.

Economic views

Dudley pioneered the importance of financial conditions in assessing the appropriate stance of monetary policy. He also led an effort by the NY Fed to highlight the importance of improving culture and conduct in the financial services industry. He has stressed the importance of incentives. Incentives drive conduct and behavior and this helps establish the social norms that define culture.
In 2002, Dudley wrote the Federal Reserve should have "tightened policy earlier and more aggressively during the 1996-1999 period", with the hope that the downward forces would not have been so intense after the collapse of the stock market that began in 2000.
Dudley was criticized for remarks over food inflation in 2011 when he argued that you have to look at all prices when looking at inflation. He noted that some prices like the iPad were effectively falling as the next generation was twice as powerful at the same price. A member of the crowd shouted "I can't eat an iPad".
When asked about the drop in the stock market on February 8, 2018, Dudley said, "So far, I'd say this is small potatoes."

Personal

Together with his wife Ann, Dudley has been a resident of Cranford, New Jersey, where he has been an active community volunteer.