Doomsday Book (2006) [pdf]

&gt; The Doomsday Book is intended to help lawyers of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York aid their clients in crisis management. It was originally distributed to a limited set of lawyers and select senior staff members. This has changed with time, as more lawyers are drawn into crisis management. Now, all FRBNY lawyers receive a copy of the Doomsday Book. Since the Doomsday Book seemed more confusing than helpful to non-lawyers, it is no longer distributed outside of the Legal Function. However, some individuals may have older versions on their shelves, and there is nothing wrong with sharing this version with clients.<p>Page 44 of the PDF has a good overview of what this document is intended to be.<p>Putting &quot;Doomsday book&quot; in the context of crisis management explains why this document exists. Basically, they don&#x27;t want to be in the middle of a crisis and have legal uncertainties delay their ability to take action.

I certainly would have thought this &#x27;book&#x27; could encompass the Great Depression (1929 and on). It is the most defined &#x27;doomsday&#x27; we should all learn from and act upon. I bet it is hard for anyone to learn from a distant past. Then I understood it was very law centric and that nothing was made to prevent a blackout, but mainly to escape any legal process that could interfere with any crisis management.<p>But my main focus was on the use of the Comic Sans font on page 1.

From the name, I expected a list of the fed’s assets similar to the more famous Domesday Book. But this is more interesting.

Wild to me that they can choose which FOIA’s to answer. Anybody had one denied?

Good lord what is up with that PDF? Half of it seems to be (badly) OCRd, some pages look like a TIFF with 50dpi or lower resolution... that&#x27;s not what I&#x27;d expect to get returned in a FOIA request.

having read and understood this doc seems like the bar for having an opinion about the role of the Fed and whether it should be &quot;ended,&quot; &quot;audited,&quot; or nationalized, given these crisis responses are a list of the essential functions for whatever might replace it.

This seems like some pedestrian financial agreements.<p>What is the TLDR on why it is called &#x27;Doomsday&#x27;?

&quot;Please note that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (the “New York Fed”) is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) although it complies with the spirit of FOIA when responding to requests of this type.&quot;<p>Isn&#x27;t it great we have a massive private entity in control of the financial system that pleasantly reminds you that it is not accountable to government laws, and by extension is not accountable to the people (&quot;A government of the people&quot;)

Page 2, comic sans

Is that Comic Sans on the second page?

I initially thought this was trolling due to the MS Comic Sans right up front.

Fascinating to see how the Fed prepares for potential systemic financial crises with this &#x27;Doomsday Book&#x27;. The name cleverly references the medieval Domesday Book, adapting that record-keeping concept to modern financial emergency preparedness.<p>It&#x27;s essentially a sophisticated crisis management playbook, similar to tech companies&#x27; incident response plans but with much higher stakes. The legal and operational complexity revealed here is truly mind-blowing

The fact that one of the most powerful financial institutions in the world maintains a &quot;Doomsday Book&quot; of emergency legal procedures, named after the historic record of English lands commissioned by William the Conqueror, suggests they take very seriously the possibility of catastrophic financial crises requiring extraordinary measures. The document states explicitly that &quot;The Doomsday Book is not, and can never be a finished product&quot; - implying an ongoing need to prepare for new types of financial emergencies.<p>This seems both novel and somewhat concerning, as it indicates the Federal Reserve anticipates and prepares for worst-case scenarios that could severely disrupt the financial system. The very existence and continuous updating of such a manual provides a window into how the Fed thinks about and prepares for potential crises.