Whatever else comes out of the release of the audio tapes by Carmen Segarra, they have harmed the reputation of Mike Silva, the long-term senior supervisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY). The (lengthy) excerpts below are taken from the This American Life program and are necessary to understand the context.
Mike Silva I have to tell you that night that the reserve fund broke the buck and we got that word…
Jake Bernstein It was a moment when it looked like the financial system was going to come crashing down. Big firms were frantically calling the Fed, terrified that economic
Armageddon had arrived. When this happened, Silva was chief of staff for Tim Geithner who, at the time, was president of the New York Fed.
Mike Silva And when I realized that nobody had any idea how to respond to that, I went into the bathroom and threw up. Because I realized this is it, it’s just this small group of people, and right now at this moment we have no clue. I never want to get close to that moment again.
