March

Speeches, Presentations and Public Appearances

• Tom Barkin, President. Speech. “Moving the Needle in Rural Communities.” March 5, 2019. Virginia Governor’s Conference on Agricultural Trade, Richmond, Virginia.
• Jeanne Milliken Bonds, Senior Manager, Regional Community Development. Presentation. Opportunity Zones. February 21, 2019. Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise UNC, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
• Jeanne Milliken Bonds, Senior Manager, Regional Community Development. Presentation. Investing in America’s Workforce. KidsReadyNC early childhood financing webinar. February 18, 2019.

Media Interviews and Commentary

Tom Barkin, Bank President

• Reuters: Tariffs, Rural Unemployment Figure in to Fed Outlook: Barkin
• RFD-TV: Virginia Ag Trade Conference With Tom Barkin

Kartik Athreya, Executive Vice President and Research Director

• Market News International: MNI EXCLUSIVE: Fed Economists Cite Still Solid US Outlook

Directors

• Virginia Business: 50 Most Influential Virginians

Regional Economists & Regional Executives

• Baltimore Sun: Maryland Loses Jobs in February, but State’s Unemployment Rate Remains 3.7 Percent
• Baltimore Sun; Carroll County Times; The Capital: Maryland’s Economy Continued to Add Jobs in January
• Charlotte Business Journal: City Leaders Search for Unity on Process for Increasing Charlotte’s Affordable Housing
• GSA Business Report: Economist: Risks Exist, but Economy Still Strong
• The Post & Courier: SC Businesses Brace for Eventual Recession as Economic Expansion Nears 10-year Mark
• Richmond Times-Dispatch: Twenty-Two Budding Entrepreneurs Recognized for Completing RVA Works Program
• Richmond Times-Dispatch: Virginia’s Unemployment Rate Rose Slightly From January to February but Down From a Year Ago
• Richmond Times-Dispatch; The Daily Progress; The Free Lance-Star; The News & Advance; The Charlottesville Business Journal: Virginia’s Unemployment Rate Held Steady in January at 2.8 percent for the Sixth Consecutive Month
• Virginia Business: Full Employment?

Selected Publications

Recent articles explore:

• Explaining Consumer Financial Distress. At any moment in time, a large fraction of U.S. households have at least one loan account that is severely delinquent. However, most instances of financial distress are accounted for by 20 percent of households that are persistently distressed. New research from the Richmond Fed examines these facts and extends a standard model to help explain them. This work may more accurately inform public policy debates on consumer debt. For example, the research suggests that stricter bankruptcy laws might lead to a shift toward delinquency rather than reducing default.
• Changes in Bank Capital Regulation Since the Financial Crisis. The latest issue of Economic Quarterly examines the history of U.S. bank capital regulation and the changes since the 2007–08 financial crisis. Government-imposed capital requirements date back as far as the mid-1800s and became stronger and more sophisticated in the 1980s with the first Basel Accords. Changes after the financial crisis have focused on controlling risk-taking at large banks while minimizing the regulatory burden on smaller banks.
• How Likely Is a Return to the Zero Lower Bound? Also included in the new issue of Economic Quarterly is an article that estimates the probability that the federal funds rate will be at or below the zero lower bound over the next decade. Richmond Fed economists Thomas Lubik and Christian Matthes find a low chance of this happening in the near term, but the probability rises to between 15 percent and 30 percent over the longer term.