The Regional Economic Outlook

It is a pleasure to be with you today to discuss the economic outlook for the region. I work, as Barbara’s kind introduction noted, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The fact that our nation’s capital lies within the Richmond Federal Reserve District, rather than the other way around, is an odd byproduct of decisions made over 90 years ago. When establishing the Federal Reserve System as the nation’s central bank, Congress created a confederation of regional banks, rather than a single, centrally located bank. The founding organizers then made Richmond the headquarters for the Fifth Federal Reserve District, which covers the area from West Virginia and Maryland in the North down to the Carolinas in the South. The founders’ motivating vision was that the nation was better served by an institution that was closely linked to the diverse economies that make up our country. And so, one of our key responsibilities at the Reserve Banks is to understand local economic conditions around our Districts. Of course, the Fed is well represented inside the beltway, since Washington is the home of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the entity that oversees Reserve Bank activities. They are kind enough to let me roam Washington at will, and we are kind enough to cut their paychecks for them.