Speaking of the Economy

At the Richmond Fed's sixth annual Investing in Rural America Conference, child care providers and experts shared the challenges of providing affordable, quality early care and education in rural communities, as well as solutions they have developed.

Grey Gordon and Felipe Schwartzman discuss the creation and evolution of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy framework and the Fed's current review of the framework. Gordon and Schwartzman are senior economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

Joseph Mengedoth provides an overview of the economic contributions of agriculture in the rural parts of the Fifth District. Mengedoth is a regional economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

Nicolas Morales, Horacio Sapriza, and Chen Yeh take listeners behind the scenes on how they work with detailed, confidential datasets about businesses and individuals. They also discuss how they gain insights on topics like immigration, credit markets, and labor productivity while safeguarding privacy rights. Morales is an economist, Sapriza is a senior economist and policy advisor, and Yeh is a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

Stephanie Norris and Matthew Wells discuss their recent research on workforce development programs at community colleges that are aimed at helping the incarcerated re-enter the workforce after they are released. Norris is a senior research analyst and Wells is a senior economics writer, both at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

Zach Edwards and Daniel Weitz discuss the concerns that chief financial officers across the country reported about their own companies and the national economy in the latest CFO Survey. Edwards is a research analyst on the Regional and Community Analysis team at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and Weitz is survey director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

John O'Trakoun and Adam Scavette discuss their new approach to gauging the health of the economy and the likelihood that a recession is taking place before other indicators would detect it. O'Trakoun is a senior policy economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and Scavette is a community development economic advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Pierre-Danie Sarte and Thomas Lubik discuss their research on the components of productivity growth, how that growth has varied over time and across industries, and how much it will benefit from the use of artificial intelligence. Sarte and Lubik are senior advisors in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

Job Boerma shares a model for how poor mental health affects the economic decisions of consumers and the economy as a whole. Boerma, an assistant professor in economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, presented his research at a recent CORE Week at the Richmond Fed.

Chen Yeh provides an update on the longevity and broader impacts of the surge in start-ups during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yeh is a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.