The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland says she's optimistic a consensus will emerge to put the nation's financial system back on a sustainable track. Bill Rice of member station WCPN in Cleveland reports.
Sandra Pianalto, who is retiring as Cleveland Fed CEO next year, gave the opening keynote address a a two-day Policy Summit held jointly each year by the Cleveland and Philadelphia Federal Reserve Banks.
Pianalto told the group of several hundred people that building consensus is the surest way to a satisfactory recovery from the financial crisis of 2008. She said debate over and ultimate passage of the financial regulations law known as Dodd Frank drew a lot of emotional response about the role of government in capital markets.
PIANALTO: “The challenge now is for the financial services industry and the communities and consumers that it serves to move past the entrenched positions and instead work together to find new solutions. And I’m optimistic, because I do see and have seen people with very different viewpoints come together to enact policies that have substantial benefits.”
She notes as an example the gradual coming around to the notion that rehabbing houses wasn’t the only way to solve communities’ foreclosure problems - demolition was also an option - an idea that’s only recently become more mainstream.