Pierre-Daniel Sarte and Sonya Waddell discuss the pricing data that the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond gathers from its monthly surveys of regional business activity and how that data can be used to inform inflation forecasts. Sarte is a senior advisor and Waddell is a vice president and economist, both at the Richmond Fed.

Andy Bauer and Amy Liu discuss the direct and spillover economic effects of the recent reductions in federal employment and spending on the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. Bauer is a regional executive at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and Liu is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the DMV Monitor.

Zhu Wang and Russell Wong discuss the shutdown in the production of pennies in the U.S. and their research on how the penny's demise is expected to impose costs on consumers. Wang is vice president for research in financial and payments systems and Wong is a senior economist, both at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.