Daniel Tarullo

One of the most iconic brands in financial television returns for today's issues and today's world. This week's Wall Street Week features David Westin's interviews with Bank of America COO Tom Montag, Bank of America Vice Chairman Anne Finucane, Former Federal Reserve Board Governor Dan Tarullo and Nobel Laureate Paul Romer. The conversations highlight President-elect Biden's economic priorities, the consequences of the surge in Covid-19 cases, and the role of ESG during a pandemic. Willett Advisors Chairman & CEO Steve Rattner and Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers analyze whether markets are getting ahead of themselves on vaccine optimism.

The Federal Reserve on Thursday temporarily restricted shareholder payouts by the nation’s biggest banks, barring them from buying back their own stocks or increasing dividend payments in the third quarter as regulators try to ensure banks remain strong enough to keep lending through the pandemic-induced downturn. The decision to limit payouts is an admission by the Fed that large financial institutions, while far better off than they were in the financial crisis, remain vulnerable to an economic downturn unlike any other in modern history. With virus cases across the United States still surging and business activity subdued, it remains unclear when and how robustly the economy will recover. Some of the Fed’s own loss projections for banks, in fact, suggest that the eventual hit to loans in a bad scenario could be far worse than in the aftermath of 2008...Others felt that the Fed could have gone further to shore up the financial system. Officials could have placed formal restrictions on shareholder payouts earlier in the coronavirus crisis, and the decision to do so now is a sign that regulators believe the financial system could face threats if the downturn drags on. But the fact that the Fed’s demands are not stricter could limit the amount of buffer that banks have on hand to absorb losses and make loans to households and companies should borrowers struggle to repay debts over the coming months. “A lot of this seems to be about preserving options,” said Daniel Tarullo, a former Fed governor and the original architect of much of the stress-testing regime who is now at Harvard. “That’s inconsistent with the idea of acting early in response to a major shock.”

The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday morning it’s making an emergency half percentagepoint rate cut, as fears continue to mount about the global spread of COVID-19. Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal spoke to Daniel Tarullo, a former member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors and professor at Harvard Law School, about what the central bank’s decision process may have been like. “The mood was probably a fairly somber one,” Tarullo said. “I suspect a lot of preliminary discussions were held last week.” Despite the rate cut, the Dow fell 700 points today. Tarullo said the market reaction implies that the Fed’s announcement may have further worried people about the severity of COVID-19.

The Federal Reserve is running the risk of fomenting an eventual financial crisis by easing banking regulations at the same time that it’s cut interest rates. So say some former Fed officials, including ex-Vice Chairman Alan Blinder and financial stability experts Daniel Tarullo and Nellie Liang. They worry that the combination of looser credit and laxer rules will prompt financial institutions and investors to pile on leverage and take excessive risks. While that may spur economic growth in the short run, it could end up triggering a recession once the speculative bets are unwound...Fed leadership though has pushed back hard against suggestions it has made the financial system more vulnerable by loosening regulations, arguing that the capital requirements of the biggest banks remain as tough as ever...Former Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo is not so sure. He zeroed in on the stress tests, including the disclosure of more information about the models behind them. “I suspect quite strongly that the effective amount of capital the banks have to have for a given portfolio is lower because they have so much more information about the stress tests,” said Tarullo, who was the Fed’s point man on regulation after the 2008 crisis and is now at the Harvard Law School.