#23. A Leading Central Banker (Wednesday, May 17, 2023)

#23. A Leading Central Banker (Wednesday, May 17, 2023)

What was your best day…of being someone others looked up to?

It’s in the mission statement of each country’s central bank to “be a leading central bank”. And for every single one of them, there’s undoubtedly at least one aspect of central banking, if not multiple, where it’s true.

As the representative for Canada at the joint New York Federal Reserve (FRBNY) / Bank of International Settlements (BIS, #55) Reserves Management Conference from May 16-19, 20231, I did my part to show that was the case for us in foreign reserves.

Besides the more exciting locale (New York City), this conference is quite different from the Public Investors Conference my institution co-hosted seven months back (#55). It’s less about sharing original research and more about training foreign reserves managers in the business, so the crowd is considerably more junior2. Though there is still a wide range of experience levels that I, with my five-and-a-half years, am right in the middle of.

But in terms of engagement, I’m clearly right at the top. And not just superficial engagement, either. Even taking a step beyond that last conference (since which I’ve been promoted to principal, #78), I can tell from just the first morning’s interactions that I’m one of the experts in the room of over seventy international reserve managers.

Even without trying, I’m saying things that people find insightful and actively want to listen to. It’s like I’m past the point of needing to prove myself. But of course, as per my nature, I still try, and try very hard to add the most value I can to each session (#109). Carefully thinking over each presenter’s speaking points, and gleaning out the one or two questions that I know will draw out a response that’ll open a new and important (and on-topic), but otherwise easy-to-miss, line of thinking on this subject. For myself, for the other attendees, for and the FRBNY and BIS co-organizers who are there.

And indeed, through all four days, I initiate several productive discussions, the organizers and presenters (also mostly from the FRBNY and BIS) express appreciation at my contributions, and several attendees remark that I have become the most popular person there.

But that’s just the conference itself. As per usual, the after-hours activities are the best part…

Wednesday

Bryson Greenwood, a senior director from RBC Capital Markets3, is on the last panel of the day. Once it’s over, he calls me over – intrigued by me being from Canada – and we start chatting about finance like good friends (who only just met). On my initiative, him and I end up going for drinks at this outdoor bar several blocks up in Downtown Manhattan.

Side Note: When he finds out I’m a big baseball fan, he tells me an absolutely insane story. In 2022 he got front row outfield seats at Yankee Stadium to see a Yankees-Royals game. He goes up to the concourse as the first inning starts, then while he’s up there a long fly ball gets hit to exactly where he was sitting and Yankees MVP Aaron Judge leaps into the stands to rob a sure home run.4 Bryson admits that had he been there, there’s a very good chance he would’ve instinctively tried to interfere with the catch. And with him in a Royals hat (he’s from Kansas) and Judge the hero to 50,000 rabid fans in the stadium, he would’ve ended up crucified or worse.

About ten minutes in, a few people from the NY Fed (one of whom I just met at the cocktail reception the day before) who know Bryson join us, and so for the next while I’m just casually drinking and joking around with them as if I’m suddenly part of this New York City social group.

But I can’t stay too long, because I have to make my way to the Hudson Theater in Midtown to see the classic 1879 play A Doll’s House starring Oscar-winning actress Jessica Chastain. (I got tickets for that instead of the more renowned Hamilton, because back in 2005 it was the first text I intentionally read from the literature “list” that jumpstarted my quizbowl career (#24). And I loved the story5.)

What strikes me is how, the moment I walk into the theater, I immediately feel in the air how serious New Yorkers are about their Broadway shows.6 As goes without saying, Chastain gives a stunning performance, and I’m glued to my seat enthralled for all ninety minutes watching this re-enactment of a special story I last saw seventeen years earlier.

Thursday

The party starts as soon as the sessions end, when several FRBNY representatives (including Kamal and Jason who I knew from a previous visit) and Daniel Evans (from Bank of England, and best friend I made there) apply some unneeded “international peer pressure” to get me to join them for drinks at this nearby high-end Mexican bar. We have a great time there, before heading to the main conference reception at another nice Downtown restaurant.

By the time the official event closes, we’ve still got about thirty people. So we set off in search for another bar, and end up in this paved street with tables and chairs laid out like a European beer hall (with two bars on the side of that street). Daniel, Kamal, another Fed guy, and I end up at one table and have a raucous one hour of spirited conversation and inter-country ribbing. Probably the most fun conversation I’ve ever had with work colleagues.

This party goes late into the night; but we figure that so long as Matt from BIS (#55) – who’s presenting tomorrow – and the NY Fed lead organizer are still out, we have no reason to not be out ourselves. And as I keep making my way from international colleague to international colleague, sensing not only the friendly vibes but also the genuine respect from each of them, I can hear myself tell myself words that I scarcely imagined I’d ever hear.

Maybe I really am at the top of my field?

  1. Coming straight from a fun week in Calgary, Canmore, and Banff (#102).
  2. In fact, the only two people besides me who were both at this one and ours was Matt McMahon and Orlando Zelaya from the BIS, whose main job included running all these conferences.
  3. It’s based in NYC, though its parent Royal Bank of Canada is headquartered in Toronto.
  4. Note the empty seat where the ball would’ve landed. The kid to the right who tried to catch the ball (but was foiled by Judge) is Bryson’s nephew.
  5. Despite reading it all while I was recovering from a wisdom tooth extraction. The female hero’s name being the same as a girl I had a big crush on at the time may have played a part.
  6. Alongside that is one of the most inexplicable sights I’ve ever seen, where the men’s washroom for the performance of this feminist play has a long line sticking out of it, while the women’s washroom has none.