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Informative article on Herman Cain's tenure at the Kansas City Federal Reserve, first as a director and then chair of the 9-member board. Interesting - a fellow KC Fed board member called him "A family man," which contradicts the MSM characterization of Cain as a serial sexual assaulter.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/10/herman-cains-fed-years-what-did-he-actually-do.html

Herman Cain: The Fed Years

What did Herman Cain actually do at the Federal Reserve?

By David Weigel

Oct 17, 2011

Herman Cain’s tenure at the Federal Reserve makes many conservatives queasy—even if they can’t agree on what he did there. According to Alex Jones, from 1992 to 1996 Cain was “Kansas City Board President of the Federal Reserve Bank.” According to a Cain fan at Ricochet, Cain was merely a “member of a Federal Reserve District Board.” In his book, This Is Herman Cain!, the candidate calls himself a former “head of the Kansas City Federal Reserve.”

Maybe the mainstream media has figured this out? Maybe not. According to the Atlantic, he was a “Federal Reserve Chairman.” According to the Huffington Post, he was a “director of the Kansas City Fed.” It was Cain’s only high-profile government role, and 15 years after he finished it, the public that might make him president has no idea what it was or meant.

What did Herman Cain do at the Fed, and what does it tell us about him? The answers: “Not much,” and “a little more than not much.”

There are 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks. Each has a nine-member board of directors, composed of three commercial bankers (Class A, in Fed jargon), three people from nonbanking sectors of the economy (Class B), and three captains of industry from the region (Class C). Cain was Class C. In 1992, he joined the board of directors at the Kansas City branch of the Federal Reserve. In 1994, he was chosen to chair the board.

What does the board of directors actually do? Every month that Cain was there, board members would meet, talk through the economic developments and data in their areas, and offer some advice. Fed economists would listen. The research would be taken up to Kansas City Fed President Tom Hoenig, who could use it however he deigned to use it.* “They’re a source of economic information for the bank,” explains Bill Medley, public information director for the Kansas City Fed. What’s their single biggest contribution? They recommend the discount rate, or what the Fed charges for loans. “But that,” says Medley, “has to be approved by the board of governors.”

That means that Cain’s role was chiefly as a charismatic guy who ran meetings well and corralled good advice. He was not an economist. In This Is Herman Cain!, the candidate recalls the Fed job as a Frank Capra-esque affair; a lunch with the branch manager turned into a pitch for an unexpected job.

“I thought: Wow, the Federal Reserve wants me to serve on one of its boards!” writes Cain. “That was something I had never really thought about, but it seemed pretty prestigious.” It was a learning experience, too. “Looking back on my time at the Federal Reserve, it gave me the opportunity to be exposed to macroeconomics.”

Was Cain just some naïf in the ways of high-level Fed policy? Sure. That was the point. His fellow board members would include the head of a petroleum company, a Kansas City housing advocate, and an Oklahoma cattle magnate. Bill McQuillan, the chairman of CNB National Bank in Greeley, Nebraska, overlapped with Cain for three years and shared “puddle jumper” planes with him when they needed to go to the monthly meetings.

“I liked him right away,” remembers McQuillan. “He was a family man. He talked about music a lot. Really, he was a very bright, charismatic guy.”

Cain turned the full power of his charisma on his new part-time job: Making meetings run quickly. “He’d come prepared,” says McQuillan. “His goal was to get all of us engaged in a discussion—maximum participation. He’d open, and say ‘We’ve got these issues to get through. We want to get through them as quickly as possible, and the floor is open for discussion.’ ”

The meetings would last around half a day. “If things were not quite as focused as they should have been, he’d bring them back,” says McQuillan. “He would never make a person feel like they were talking out of turn. He’d say, ‘I appreciate your comments, but in the interest of time, we should move on.’ ”

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Funny enough, that’s just how Cain describes his executive style. Whenever he’s pressed on policy, on what to do in Afghanistan, on how to handle a crisis, he has a common refrain: “I’ll summon the experts.” He likes leaders who do the same, which is a reason he praises former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. “He would sit patiently and listen to all the reports,” writes Cain in his memoir, “hear everybody, and then come to his insightful conclusion about what we needed to do. He was a very effective leader who did not make unilateral decisions.”

Cain praised Greenspan at last week’s Republican debate, too. Right away, in the unpredictable politics of 2011, it came off like a possible gaffe. Greenspan’s reputation isn’t what it once was, nor is the Fed’s. In the 1990s, the Fed’s dual mandate of keeping inflation low and employment high wasn’t quite so tricky. When McQuillan and Cain were riding those puddle jumpers, joblessness in Nebraska fell below 3 percent. Cain focused on inflation. “When it comes to monetary policy,” fellow board member Drue Jennings told the Atlantic this year, “he was an inflation hawk.”

What does that mean in 2011? It means that Cain wants the Fed to stop worrying about unemployment and focus on keeping inflation low. In his words, the Fed’s “focus needs to be narrowed”: Worry about the currency and let the rest of us worry about jobs. That’s a common Republican critique of the Fed right now, but it’s also a little strange. Inflation hasn’t been a problem since before the Great Recession began.

Cain’s fans—and they include everyone who’s talked on the record about his Fed days— don’t knock him for that. They remember a smart guy from whom everyone expected bigger things. “One time,” says McQuillan, “I remember sitting around the table with him and talking politics. I said, ‘Herman, you’d be a great senator.’ He said it wasn’t the time for that. So I told him he’d make a great president. He looked at me like: Are you crazy?”

*Correction, Oct. 18, 2011: This article originally misidentified Kansas City Fed President Tom Hoenig’s title as Kansas City Fed chairman.

Viewpoint by website Black Enterprise on Hermain Cain and his business success and political experience.

https://www.blackenterprise.com/tapped-to-sit-on-fed-board-herman-cain-straddles-fence/

Tapped to Sit on Fed Board, Herman Cain Straddles Fence Between Business Success and Political Controversy

by Samara Lynn

April 5, 2019

Perhaps no other black business person stirs up more polarizing debate than Herman Cain. The former head of Godfather’s Pizza, stepped into the political limelight in 2011 when he announced his candidacy as the Republican presidential nominee. That effort was thwarted by a series of sexual harassment allegations against Cain. Yet, he has re-emerged on the national stage as a proposed pick by President Trump to sit on the Federal Reserve Board. A success in business, yet, a failure in politics—is now the time for Herman Cain to rise to political prominence?

Herman Cain’s Business Backstory

Cain was named president of the then-failing Godfather’s Pizza chain in 1986. In an article from Black Enterprise in 1988 on Cain: “Fresh from rejuvenating Pillsbury’s Burger King chain in the Philadelphia region, the energetic, enthusiastic new president of Godfather’s went immediately to work closing weak outlets, strengthening the company’s advertising thrust, repairing relations with franchisees and swiftly resolving legal conflicts.”

Without question, Cain has proven he possesses sharp business acumen. Under his leadership, Godfather’s Pizza saw a reversal in sales decline and generated $260 million in sales.

He demonstrated business savvy early on. The Morehouse College graduate served a short period in the Navy and then went on to complete a master’s degree in Computer Science at Purdue University. His first corporate position was as a business analyst at Coca-Cola.

Cain’s business talents came to light during his next gig at Pillsbury where he advanced to vice president status within five years.

Entrepreneurial Mindset

Although he quickly ascended the corporate ladder, Cain also had an entrepreneurial spirit. He set his sights on the fast food business—even becoming a member of a Burger King kitchen crew to learn the ins and outs of the hamburger business. Within seven months, he was promoted to regional vice president.

“You’ve got to have a passion for that business, followed by a desire to make it to the top,” he said in an interview with Black Enterprise in 1988. “Then you will do whatever you need to do in order to get there.”

He eventually bought the Godfather’s Pizza chain from its parent company, Pillsbury for an estimated $50 million. The transaction was the first leveraged buyout of a major fast-food company by a black executive in business history.

Political Ambitions

Cain’s political ambitions were made clear when he ran as a Republican presidential nominee. Plagued by scandal, his campaign fell flat—perhaps one of the rare failures for the businessman.

Now, with the blessings of Donald Trump, it seems that Cain is poised to assume a prominent political and economic position at the Federal Reserve. How likely is his appointment and is he the person for the job?

No, says Catherine Rampell, a columnist for The Washington Post. And it isn’t just about the troubling sexual harassment allegations that took down his presidential run, she says.

“When it comes to understanding pretty basic policy issues, Cain isn’t able,” writes Rampell.

“Most people who remember anything about Cain’s brief political career might know him for the “9-9-9” tax rate plan. Unfortunately, neither did that plan have rates that were actually 9 percent nor did it turn out to be particularly strong in its arithmetic,” she continues.

A fellow Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney, also cast doubt about Cain’s fitness for the Fed. “I doubt that will be a nomination. But if it were a nomination, you can bet [what] the interest rates he would be pushing for,” Romney said in an interview.

“If Herman Cain were on the Fed, you’d know the interest rate would soon be 9-9-9.”

Some Republicans are more optimistic. Sen. David Perdue, a Georgia Republican, said about Cain; “He’s a business guy. He’s got a great background for it. I know him personally. I think personally he’d be a great addition,” according to Fortune.

Cain’s businesses successes have seemed to elude his success in politics. Is his appointment a serious consideration or another one of the mercurial President’s whims? And if appointed to the Fed, how effective can he be? That all remains to be seen.