The HN headline is deceptive. You want your Federal Reserve bank to be close to the big banks, there are trillions of dollars at stake. The real question is: ar

The HN headline is deceptive. You want your Federal Reserve bank to be close to the big banks, there are trillions of dollars at stake. The real question is: are FOMC staffers leaking Fed moves before the general public knows? From the article: "The data show a striking increase in rides from the commercial banks to the New York Fed almost immediately after the midnight lifting of the communications blackout. Tight restrictions on Federal Reserve staff communications are in force until midnight the day after an FOMC announcement, and rides to the New York Fed are elevated between 1 and 4 a.m. thereafter." Unless I'm reading this wrong, staffers meet with bankers after the embargo is lifted -- which is normal. Also from the article: "Analysis of nearly coincidental drop-offs suggests that offsite lunchtime meetings between New York Fed insiders and commercial bankers increase around FOMC announcements." Are they leaking FOMC moves or not? This just says they had lunch. What if it's Fed regulators plying bankers for market conditions? The authors assume it's the regulators dishing info but it's probably the reverse: before making a call on raising interest rates Fed regulators probably want a qualitative assessment from people in the trenches, a picture beyond what the raw numbers say. Unless the authors have evidence that banks consistently profited from timed bets on interested rates after meeting with FOMC staff before a public announcement I'm skeptical this is anything dastardly. I'm not defending Wall Street, I'd just like more evidence accusing people of law-breaking then "they met after the embargo was lifted" and "they had lunch around times of announcements."