Joseph Miller looked and acted like a chairman of the Federal Reserve should: snow-white hair, haughty bearing, sonorous voice, and the florid vocabulary of a first-class pedant. He was at his enormous desk in his enormous book-lined office studying a spreadsheet showing the latest flow of money into various international funds when his assistant rang.
“Mr. Pennington has called with a question, sir.”
As far as Miller was concerned, Pennington was a lightweight. Unlike most of the top people in the Fed, Don Pennington wasn’t a Ph.D. in economics, and in serious meetings it was obvious that the man didn’t know what was being discussed.
By law a committee of the Wall Street establishment chose the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and Pennington was a golfing buddy with a lot of them. In addition he had contributed heavily to Farmer’s presidential campaign, and under pressure from the White House, Miller had reluctantly rubber-stamped the appointment. Now Don Pennington was the second-most-important figure in the Federal Reserve hierarchy.
Miller picked up the phone. “Good morning, Don. You have a question for me?”
“Spencer Nast stopped by to have a chat this morning, Mr. Chairman.”
“What for?”
“He warned me that another financial disaster is coming our way, and it’ll probably be a lot worse than ’08.”
“If that scumbag called on a rainy day to warn that showers were likely, you’d be hard-pressed to believe him,” Miller said. “Did he give you any details?”
“He’s worried about the Chinese debt bomb. Said it’s about to explode. He had the numbers and frankly, Mr. Chairman, he sounded very convincing.”
“He always does.”
“What should we do, if anything?”
“I’ll make a few calls, see if anyone else is coming to the same conclusion. If it comes to anything, I’ll give you the heads-up on what the New York Fed’s response will be. Meanwhile, don’t share this with anyone else. Just keep a lid on it, Don. Please.”
“I’m part of the decision-making loop. How can I help?”
“Go to lunch,” Miller said. “You’re good at that.” And he hung up.