DUDLEY
William

William C. Dudley  is an American economist who served as the president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2009 to 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. He spent his freshman year at Columbia University and subsequently 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. When Timothy Geithner became the Secretary of Treasury in 2009, Dudley became the 10th President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

In 2019, Dudley joined the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University as a senior research scholar. He is currently the Chair of the Bretton Woods Committee. 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 (2009-2012) and the Committee on the Global Financial System (2012-2018).

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 December 2020, Dudley noted that an inflation scare was likely. Base effects and supply chain disruptions were likely to push inflation well above 2%. Dudley also highlighted the flaws in the Fed’s new long-term monetary framework, pointing out that how the Fed operationalized its new 2% average inflation targeting regime meant that it would be slow to tighten monetary policy. The likely result would be the Fed forced to respond more aggressively later, resulting in higher short-term rates and, ultimately, a greater risk of a hard landing and recession.

Personal life

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