What’s Keeping the Fed on Hold?

Thank you, Eric, thank you to the conference organizers for asking me to speak today, and thank you, especially, to the practitioners here for the work you do in building stronger communities.1 Your mission has also been at the center of my career in many different roles as an academic, a practitioner, and a public official, starting as the Treasury Department's point person on community development way back in the 1990s. Community development has been an important part of my work ever since, as a professor, a university leader, and, most recently, a banking regulator. I think this might help you understand how thrilled I am to have recently taken on the role of consumer and community development point person among the members of the Board of Governors, in support of Eric and his team and of the CD function throughout the Fed System. Strong and sustainable communities are crucial to the Federal Reserve's mission of promoting a healthy economy and a stable financial system. Under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), the Fed has a statutory obligation to supervise how banks meet the credit needs of the communities they serve, consistent with safe and sound lending practices. Our community development work reinforces the benefits of this effort. More broadly, community development work helps the Fed support a strong and healthy economy. Our primary tool for doing this is monetary policy. Monetary policy influences interest rates and financial conditions to affect economic activity. We adjust interest rates in service of seeking price stability and maximum employment for the American people. Fed's Barr: Monetary policy well positioned to wait and see how economic conditions unfold. Fed's Barr: Tariffs may at same time slow the economy and cause unemployment to rise. Fed's Barr: Still considerable uncertainty on tariff policies and effects