Neel Kashkari

Neel Kashkari worked at Goldman Sachs before joining the US Treasury under Hank Paulson, where he was tasked with administering the $700 billion TARP program — arguably the most consequential government financial intervention in modern history. He ran unsuccessfully for governor of California before becoming president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in 2016. At the Minneapolis Fed, Kashkari was the most consistently dovish FOMC member, arguing that the labor market had more room to recover before rate hikes were appropriate. He also authored influential research on ending "too big to fail." His Minneapolis Fed published a detailed plan for ending the implicit government guarantees enjoyed by the largest U.S. banks, proposing dramatically higher capital requirements that would have fundamentally restructured the banking industry. In 2021-2022, he shifted position and became one of the more hawkish voices on the FOMC as inflation rose sharply. His willingness to publicly update his views as economic conditions changed earned him respect for intellectual honesty. He grew up in a Punjabi immigrant family in Ohio and has spoken about his background as informing his focus on economic opportunity and labor market access for marginalized groups.