Featured Interviews
Our interviews augment our document-based research by revealing general observations, valuable insights, and unanticipated “Lessons Learned” that we believe will be helpful to policymakers in the future.
Our interviews recount a multitude of perspectives and also provides a human dimension to these rare and extraordinary events. These are the stories of the decisionmakers, who, as the U.S. housing market crashed and the exposure of the inherent weaknesses in the financial system sent markets into a freefall, were tasked with crafting the emergency response not knowing how, or even if, they could contain the damage and restore stability. We hear from the deputies, the lieutenants, and the analysts who worked through the night shepherding possibilities and pouring over numbers. They are men and women who answered their government’s call to service, and put their expertise at its disposal, leaving jobs, families and vacations behind.
The views of the interviewees are their own and are not in any way approved or endorsed by organizations that they are, or have been, affiliated with, or YPFS. Because the interviews are based on personal recollections, they may include misstatements and errors. YPFS edits the transcripts for the sake of clarity and accuracy. We do not fact-check the interviews but may address an obvious significant misstatement or factual error.
Click the links below to browse the entire collection of Lessons Learned Transcripts and Summaries organized by the institution served during a specific crisis event:
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
- John Bovenzi, Deputy Chairman
- Jason Cave, Associate Director, Capital Markets; Senior Advisor to the Chairman
- Diane Ellis, Deputy Director, Insurance and Research
- Andrew Gray, Director, Office of Public Affairs, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
- Michael Krimminger, General Counsel
- Arthur Murton, Director, Division of Insurance and Research
- Christopher Spoth, Senior Deputy Director, Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection
- James Wigand, Deputy Director, Franchise and Asset Marketing
Federal Reserve System
- Scott Alvarez, General Counsel, Federal Reserve Board of Governors (Interview 1 of 2)
- Scott Alvarez, General Counsel, Federal Reserve Board of Governors (Interview 2 of 2)
- Thomas Baxter, General Counsel, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Sandra Braunstein, Director, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs (DCCA), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board
- Seth Carpenter, Deputy Director, Division of Monetary Affairs, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Tim Clark, Senior Adviser, Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Sarah Dahlgren, Executive Vice President and head of Financial Institution Supervision Group (FISG), Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- William Dudley, Executive Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Markets Group
- William B. English, Deputy Director of the Division of Monetary Affairs
- Kieran J. Fallon, Associate General Counsel
- Jack Gutt, VP, Head of Media Relations and Public Affairs, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Michael Held, General Counsel, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Steven B. Kamin, Deputy Director, Division of International Finance, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Alejandro Latorre, Assistant Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Mike Leahy, Former Associate Director, Federal Reserve Board of Governors
- Andreas Lehnert, Chief, Household and Real Estate Finance Section, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Lorie Logan, Director of Treasury Markets, Open Market Trading Desk, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Donald Kohn, Vice Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Susan McLaughlin, SVP and COO, Market Operations, Monitoring and Analysis Function, Markets Group, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Calvin Mitchell III, Executive VP and Member of the Management Committee, Communications Group, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Frederic Mishkin, Governor, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Patricia Mosser, Senior Manager, Open Market Desk, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- William "Bill" Nelson, Deputy Director, Monetary Affairs Division, Federal Reserve Board of Governors
- Deborah Perelmuter, Senior Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Simon Potter, Director of Economic Research and co-head of the Research and Statistics Group, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Zoltan Pozsar, Senior Trader and Analyst, Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Markets Group
- Eric Rosengren, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
- Brian Sack, Executive Vice President of the Markets Group, and Manager of the System Open Market Account, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Claudia Sahm, Former Principal Economist and Section Chief, Consumer and Community Research and Statistics, Federal Reserve Board
- Til Schuermann, Senior Vice President Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Nathan Sheets, Director of Division of International Finance, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Michael Silva, Chief-of-Staff to NY Federal Reserve President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Daleep Singh, Executive Vice President and Head of the Markets Group, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Kevin Stiroh, Former Head of Financial Sector Analysis Supervision Group, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Zachary Taylor, Vice President - Head of Maiden Lane and TALF Portfolios, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Mark Van Der Weide, General Counsel, Federal Reserve Board of Governors
- Paul A. Volcker, Chair of the Federal Reserve System
- Kevin Warsh, Governor, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- David Wilcox, Deputy Director of Research and Statistics, Federal Reserve Board of Governors
- Andrew Williams, Vice President, Media Relations and Public Affairs, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
A Special Project: Inside the CDO Machine
- James K. Finkel, Former CEO and Co-founder, Dynamic Credit Partners
- Steve H. Kasoff, Former Partner, Elliott Management
- Sohail Khan, Former Managing Director, Citigroup
- Stephen King, Former Head of the Structured Credit Group, Barclays
- Eric Kolchinsky, Former Managing Director, Moody’s Investor Services
- Chris Ricciardi, Former Managing Director & Head of U.S. Structured Credit Products, CS First Boston (2000 – 2002) & Managing Director & Global Head of Structured Credit Products, Merrill Lynch (2003 – 2005)
- Brian Stoker, Former Director of ABS CDO & CLO Structuring, Citigroup (2005 - 2008) & Vice President, Merrill Lynch (1998 – 2005)
The Presidential Taskforce on the Automotive Industry
Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) (National Bank of Hungary)
United States Department of the Treasury
- Steven Adamske, Deputy Assistant for Public Affairs
- Michele Davis, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Director of Policy Planning
- Kenneth Feinberg, Special Master for Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) Executive Compensation
- Robert Hoyt, General Counsel
- Matthew Kabaker, Deputy Assistant Secretary
- Neel Kashkari, Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability
- Jenni Lecompte, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Public Affairs Operations
- Clay Lowery, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs
- Timothy Massad, Chief Legal Counsel, Office of Financial Stability
- James Millstein, Chief Restructuring Officer
- Matthew Rutherford, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Federal Finance
- Edwin "Ted" M. Truman ,Counselor to the Treasury Secretary
- Richard "Jake" Siewert, Counselor to Treasury Secretary
- Lewis "Lee" Sachs, Counselor to the Treasury Secretary
- Phillip Swagel, Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy
Other Organizations
- Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor, Bank Negara Malaysia
- Ignazio Angeloni, Adviser, Executive Board for Financial Integration (2009–2012) and Director General Financial of Stability (2012-14), European Central Bank
- Mark Branson, Director, Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA)
- Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General, Office of the Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP)
- Benoît Cœuré, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank
- Jesper Berg, Director of Financial Stability, Danish Central Bank
- Paul Boothe, Former Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Industry, Canada
- Brooksley Born, Chair, Commodity Futures Trading Commission
- Miguel Carcaño, Head of Treasury Department, Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring
- Ray Dalio, Founder, Chairman, and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Bridgewater Associates
- Alfred Dellibovi, Former President and Chief Executive Officer Federal Home Loan Bank of New York
- Eric Dinallo, New York State Superintendent of Insurance, New York State
- Subba Rao Duvvuri, Governor, Reserve Bank of India
- Chester Feldberg, Trustee, American International Group (AIG)
- J. Christopher Flowers, Managing Director, CEO, and Chairman, J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC.
- Giorgio Gobbi, Head of Financial Structure and Intermediaries Division, Bank of Italy
- Stefan Ingves, Governor, Sveriges Rijksbank
- Luis Jácome, President of the Board, Banco Central del Ecuador
- Daniela Klingebiel, Former Principal Portfolio Manager, World Bank Pension and Endowment Department, Hedge Funds
- Philip Lane, Former Governor, Central Bank of Ireland
- James B. Lockhart, Chairman, Federal Housing Finance Agency
- Patrick Honohan, Former Governor, Central Bank of Ireland
- Hiroshi Nakaso, Former Deputy Governor, Bank of Japan
- John Oros, Managing Director, J.C. Flowers & Co.
- Guillermo Ortiz Martínez. Former Minister of Finance, Mexico
- Spiros Pantelias, Director, Financial Stability Division, Bank of Greece
- Raghuram Rajan, Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- Martin Redrado, Former President, Central Bank of Argentina
- Klaus Regling, Managing Director, European Stability Mechanism
- Veerathai Santiprabhob, Former Governor, Bank of Thailand
- Faith Schwartz, Hope Now Alliance, Executive Director
- Erik Sirri, Former Director, Division of Trading and Markets, Securities and Exchange Commission
- Cecilia Skingsley, Deputy Governor, Swedish Riksbank
- Diane Thompson, Of Counsel, National Consumer Law Center
- Gaurav Vasisht, Assistant Counsel to the Governor of NY, banking and financial services
- Vincenzo La Via, Chief Financial Officer, World Bank Group
- David Wessel, Former Economics Editor, Wall Street Journal
- Karl-Philipp Wojick, General Counsel, European Banking Union, Single Resolution Board
We publish our Lessons Learned summaries in our online journal, the Journal of Financial Crises on an ongoing basis. This allows us to share the essence of the interview with the public sooner, in a shortened version. You may view our published Lessons Learned summaries in our Journal of Financial Crises, or download the list of published Lesson Learned summaries marked with descriptive keywords. Complete interview transcripts may be accessed by clicking on the above links.
Additionally, browse our full collection of Lessons Learned Materials and other materials related to crises throughout history with expanded search capability in the YPFS Resource library.
Lastly, find answers to frequently asked questions regarding the Lessons Learned Oral History Project here.