Why Do Fed Bankers Meet in Ritzy Jackson Hole?

I don't know what Ben Bernanke's going to say today to reassure everyone when he addresses the meeting of the Kansas City Fed in Jackson Hole. But I would like to ask why this group of government employees gets to meet in Jackson Hole?

I know they're bankers and oh-so-important but what other federal entity gets to have a retreat in such a fancy locale?

Granted, the Fed is quasi autonomous and all of that, but if the Pentagon's top brass or the Energy Department leadership were gathering in some resort locale eyebrows would go up. Aside from the waste o' taxpayers dollars, what kind of signal does it send when rich bankers on the public dime meet in a resort where no doubt they'll rule that all those subprime spendthrifts have to lose their homes?

Inequality if growing in America. A moment like this doesn't help. It hearkens back to the Jekyll Island meeting where the Fed was founded by plutocrats like Paul Warburg.

Comments

[patp1008:]

MATT
DO YOUR RESEARCH--FED BANKERS ARE NOT GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES

PAT

2007 Aug 31 08:50 AM

[seachiefpaul:]

The employees of The Federal Reserve are not employees of any government. The Federal Reserve is a private corporation, regulated by the Federal Government.

2007 Aug 31 10:20 AM

[emily x:]

Oh, Matt...nobody poor gives a crap where the Fed meets, or what the government does. We are too busy trying to make $9 an hour cover food and gas and school clothes for the kids and the credit card bill and the rent, or the suddenly much more expensive mortgage. They could meet in Heaven for all we care, if only *somebody* in Washington would make the least effort to bring good-paying jobs back to places like Michigan...

2007 Aug 31 10:48 AM