As New York Fed Gets Reprieve in Libor, Dudley No Show At Jackson Hole

At Jackson Hole tomorrow, Team Federal Reserve will be comprised of frontman Ben Bernanke, his Cher vice chair Janet Yellen and the heads of ten of the Fed’s 12 regional Fed banks. New York Fed’s William Dudley, on the heel of that bank’s temporary reprieve fro the Libor scandal,  and Richard Fisher of the Dallas Fed will not be attending.

For Dudley, he is fresh off Congress’ easing of demands that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York turn over thousands of documents explicating interest rate manipulation by big banks. Now, Congress will expect less and give the regulator more time. The New York Fed therefore has one more month to get its book in order, according to the New York Times.

The Congressional inquiry will no longer seek e-mails from bankers.

Still, there are other, more notable no-shows at Jacskon Hole tomorrow, perhaps hinting that tomorrow will be a yawn. Hu Xiaolian, vice governor of the People’s Bank of China, doesn’t usually attend the Jackson Hole meetings, but when he does, overt quantitative easing is on the mind of the financial world.  Although the Jackson Hole meeting is a gala of central bankers fixing rates around the world, top Chinese official have not usually attended. But, with the end of Chimerica nigh, this Jackson Hole meeting is different.

According to Wall Street Journal:

The attendance of Ms. Hu — who is also the administrator of China’s massive foreign exchange holdings — is a sign of China’s continuing efforts to work more closely with global financial policy makers. It is also a reminder that the Fed’s monetary policy decisions have important consequences for Chinese policy makers, who tie their currency to the dollar. Because of that link, the Fed’s easy money policies have in the past caused inflation problems in China.

The big no-show on the Jackson Hole guest list is Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, who pulled out earlier this week. Mr. Draghi is wrestling with tough decisions back home ahead of a Sept. 6 policy meeting and likely figured he could live without the attention heaped on central bankers in Jackson Hole. Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer will take the place of Mr. Draghi on a panel on which Mr. Draghi was scheduled to participate Saturday. Sorry, currency traders — no weekend headlines from Mr. Draghi to trade on when Asia opens.

Many other top foreign central bankers are scheduled to be here, including Charles Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of England, Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann and Masaaki Shirakawa from the Bank of Japan. Officials will also be here from a long list of monetary authorities in Sweden, Iraq, Malaysia, Turkey, Poland, Malta, Denmark, Mexico, Hong Kong, Portugal, Albania, Ireland, Korea, France, Finland, Luxembourg, South Africa, Norway, Italy, Spain, Nigeria, Iceland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Brazil, Jordan, Colombia, Peru and Austria.

Also in attendance are research directors from the Fed’s 12 regional banks. They weren’t invited last year to make space for others. The Wall Street presence is pretty small, and includes Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist from Goldman Sachs, Joseph LaVorgna, economist from Deutsche Bank, Dean Maki, economist from Barclays, Julia Coronado, chief U.S. economist of BNP Paribas, and Diane Swonk, economist from Mesirow Financial.

A few Fed critics are on hand — including John Taylor, the Stanford professor. Mitt Romney economic adviser Glenn Hubbard is also here. Some observers think he could be on Mr. Romney’s short list for future Fed chairman if elected. Another possible Republican successor to Fed Chairman Bernanke is here — Martin Feldstein, the Harvard professor and former adviser to Ronald Reagan. President Barack Obama has a contingent including Alan Krueger, chairman of Mr. Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Is that the making for an economic smackdown over cocktails? Probably not. But it sure would be interesting.