The Federal Reserve comes to Zanesville
ZANESVILLE, Ohio – A high-ranking member of the Federal Reserve visited Zanesville on Tuesday to understand our local economy.
Beth Hammack is the president and CEO of the Reserve Bank of Cleveland, which oversees one of the 12 Federal Reserve districts. As someone who will be voting on interest rates in June, she visited AMG Vanadium to discuss how things are operating in the area.
“Well we talked about their employees. We talk about sort of the background that their employees have, how they’re looking to hire, what types of qualities they’re looking for in the people that they’re hiring. That gives me some insights into what’s going on in the labor market, which is really important for me as I think about setting monetary policy, to understand if everyone who wants a job can find a job. That’s what we call maximum employment. That’s one half of our mandate,” Hammack said. “The other half is price stability. So, getting a sense of how their pricing is on their input cost, what they’re thinking about in terms of charging their customers, to get a sense of how all of that is working.”
Tuesday’s visit was part of a larger road trip with Hammack planning stops in Marietta, Athens, and Cincinnati. She says it’s important to visit as much of the district as possible to understand economic conditions in real time.
“I look at the hard data that comes in, but that tends to be backward-looking. So, in talking to business leaders, being out face-to-face with them, I understand some of the trade-offs that they’re facing and how that impacts their choices. Which tells me more about where the economy is heading rather than where it was and that’s really helpful for me,” Hammack said. “Because monetary policy tends to take a little while before it works and so I need to think about not just where the economy is taking us today but where it’s going to be in three months, in six months, in 12 months. And these conversations with business leaders really give me those insights.”
The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s district covers all of Ohio, eastern Kentucky, western Pennsylvania, and the panhandle of West Virginia.
