Lacker joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in 1989 as an economist in the banking area of the Research Department. He was named research officer in 1994, vice president in 1996, and senior vice president and director of the Research Department in May 1999.[3]
Lacker took office on August 1, 2004, as the seventh chief executive of the Fifth District Federal Reserve Bank at Richmond. He served the remainder of a term that began on March 1, 2001. He served as a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, bringing his district's perspective to policy discussions in Washington.
Lacker's vote was the solitary dissent in the August, September, October, and December 2006 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings.[4] The FOMC decided to keep interest rates steady at 5.25 percent after a series of seventeen consecutive increases of twenty-five basis points each, while Lacker voted for additional tightening. At the January 2009 meeting, "Mr. Lacker dissented because he preferred to expand the monetary base by purchasing U.S. Treasury securities rather than through targeted credit programs", according to the FOMC minutes.
In addition Lacker voted against the action at April 2012 meeting: "... who does not anticipate that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate through late 2014", according to FOMC press release.[5] He cast the sole vote against quantitative easing by the purchase of mortgage-backed securities and the issuance of forward guidance at the September 2012 FOMC meeting.[6]
When the Fed met in September 2015, Lacker issued the only vote in favor of increasing interest rates. His was the first such dissenting vote from the committee all year.[7][8] He was termed "a maverick" in a February 2017 Richmond Times-Dispatch cover story in the RTD Metro Business section.[9] Previously in 2017, the Richmond Times-Dispatch announced that Lacker would retire on October 1, 2017.[10]
On April 4, 2017, Lacker abruptly resigned his post, admitting that he spoke to a Medley Global Advisors financial analyst about confidential Fed deliberations in 2012, and also "failed to disclose the details of the conversation even when he was questioned directly in an internal investigation."[11] The Fed, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and U.S. Attorney's Office all investigated the leak, but no charges were brought against any person. Lacker's attorney said that Lacker had cooperated with the Justice Department and that he was "informed that no charges will be brought and that the investigation as to him is complete."[11]
Lacker is the author of numerous articles in professional journals on monetary, financial, and payment economics, and has presented his work at several universities and central banks. He taught at The College of William and Mary in 1992 and 1993, and in 1997 he was a visiting scholar at the Swiss National Bank.[13] He is the author of From Real Bills to Too Big to Fail: H. Parker Willis and the Fed's First Century.[14]
Jeffrey Lacker was born in Lexington, Kentucky, the son of William Ralph Lacker and Marion Pharis Spears ("Mern") Lacker.[17][18] He and his wife, Lisa Halberstadt, daughter of Jack Halberstadt and Elaine Greenberg Halberstadt,[19] have two sons, Benjamin and Daniel.[20]
^Harper, Christine. "A Conversation with Jeffrey M. Lacker"Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine, Council on Foreign Relations, May 9, 2013. Accessed April 17, 2014. "It's delightful to be back in New York. I grew up just over the river, Ridgewood, New Jersey, and -- son's here, had dinner with my son last night and was treated to just an exceptional flight in over Lower Manhattan last night."
^Blackwell, John Reid (February 27, 2017). "Fed's Lacker 'a maverick':Lacker outspoken at Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond--While retiring president often questioned policies, he defended institution itself". No. RTD Metro Business. Richmond Times-Dispatch. pp. E1, E12–E14.
^Blackwell, John Reid (January 11, 2017). "Richmond Fed chief to retire in October: Advocate of workforce training and early childhood development". No. RTD Business. Richmond, Virginia: Richmond Times-Dispatch. pp. D1, D4. He joined the Richmond Fed in 1989 and served in various positions before his appointment as president in August 2004, succeeding J. Alfred Broaddus, Jr. when he retired as president. "When Jeff leaves the bank in October, he will have completed over 13 years of exceptional service to the Richmond Fed, the Federal Reserve System and the country," Broaddus said.
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