The Federal Reserve’s Big Experiment

The FRONTLINE Dispatch

GBH

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As the U.S. Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell, confront concerns over inflation and the impact of the Fed’s pandemic-era policies, we take a deep dive into the country’s central bank, which financial journalist Dion Rabouin calls “the most powerful and least understood institution in the country.”

James Jacoby, a producer of the FRONTLINE documentary “The Power of the Fed,” and Rabouin, who was featured in the film, join FRONTLINE Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath for a conversation about how the Fed’s actions to avert crisis when COVID struck were the latest chapter in an experiment the Fed began after the 2008 crash — one that has dramatically changed the American economy. Jacoby and Rabouin explore criticisms that, while well-intentioned, the Fed’s efforts have contributed to wealth inequality and helped today’s financial world grow far removed from the real-world economy.

“The Federal Reserve has taken on a much more active role in trying to manage our economy, basically, since the financial crisis in 2008-2009,” Jacoby tells Aronson-Rath. “And then the experimental policies that they put into gear at that point really never left us. … it's led to all sorts of unforeseen, unintended consequences that we're all contending with now.”

“The Power of the Fed” is now streaming on FRONTLINE’s website, the PBS Video app and FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Major sell-off across that Europe this morning.
0:06.0	Investors are spooked by the growing number of infections outside China.
0:09.0	The doubt plunging again today, the 11-year bull market has ended.
0:13.0	People have gone now without four or five or six or seven paychecks and starting to catch up.
0:19.0	When the pandemic created unprecedented financial upheaval,
0:23.0	the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve, intervened.
0:27.0	The Federal Reserve cut interest rates to near zero.
0:31.0	The market has been open for 30 minutes and we've gone straight up.
0:35.0	The Dow rising nearly 18% as the best performance has 1987.
0:39.0	The Fed helps stabilize the economy and the pandemic would become a blip and the longest bull market in history.
0:46.0	It is the most powerful and least understood institution in the country.
0:51.0	And it really is difficult to overstate how big this story is and how much it matters.
0:57.0	That's Financial Journalist Dianne Roboen from our film The Power of the Fed.
1:02.0	Dianne joins me now with producer James Jacobi to discuss the Federal Reserve's actions,
1:07.0	who's been benefiting and at what cost.
1:10.0	I'm Rainier and Sunrock, Executive Producer of Frontline and this is the Frontline Dispatch.
1:21.0	The Frontline Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation, committed to excellence in journalism,
1:26.0	and by the WGBH Catalyst Fund.
1:29.0	Support for the Frontline Dispatch also comes from the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.
1:34.0	Early detection is key to catching and treating many cancers.
1:37.0	You can learn more about the innovative programs at massgeneral.org slash cancer.
1:42.0	Massgeneral Cancer Center, every day amazing.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from GBH, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of GBH and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.