BOSTIC: FAREWELL TO THE BEST JOB I'VE EVER HAD

The following information was released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta:

Key Points

In his last quarterly message as Atlanta Fed president and CEO, Raphael Bostic bids farewell to the people of the Sixth Federal Reserve District.

"It has been my great honor to serve the American people as a central banker and, in particular, to serve the people of the Sixth District as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta," Bostic writes.

He shares that he wasn't entirely sure what to expect when he moved south for the first time in 2017. What he found was a region full of people who care deeply about their communities, and who are welcoming, open, and candid in sharing their views of the economy.

Bostic notes that his tenure has spanned a time of extraordinary upheaval in the US economy, from inflation stubbornly below the Fed's 2 percent target, to the biggest spike in inflation in 40 years, and attacks on the Fed's independence to make monetary policy.

Despite it all, his time as Atlanta Fed president is the highlight of his career, Bostic writes.

The past eight years and eight months as president of the Atlanta Fed have been the highlight of my professional career.

To be sure, it's been hectic, and it's been challenging. I've had to worry about virtually everythingand everything has happened since I arrived in Atlanta in 2017:

Initially, a slow-growing economy and inflation that had been too low for nearly a decade;

a global pandemic and shutdowns of swaths of the economy, resulting in the loss of 22 million jobs in two months;

kinks in global supply chains, a vigorous economic rebound, and the biggest burst of inflation in 40 years;

wars in Europe and the Middle East;

the onrush of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency;

US-instigated disruptions of long-standing trade relationships and heightened policy uncertainty;

and, finally, attacks on the Fed's independence to make monetary policy.

Despite all thatand that's a lotI will miss this job!

That's because, in important ways, my time at the Atlanta Fed set a standard for what a professional experience can be. I wrestled with fascinating subject matter every day, as the staff and I sought to get to grips with a vastly complex and ever-evolving economy. I worked with remarkably smart people devoted to the Federal Reserve's public mission to support the stability of the nation's economy and financial system. I never stopped learning.

I met business and community leaders and ordinary people across the six states of the Sixth District, from bustling metropolitan areas like Atlanta, Nashville, and Orlando, to rural pockets and smaller towns like Albany, Georgia, Red Bay, Alabama, and Meridian, Mississippi.

People I metand I met manyexpressed varied perspectives on the economy and harbored varied concerns. But more important than the differences were the commonalities. Across the region, I discovered a deep commitment to place. Virtually everyone I met cares about their community and sincerely wants the best for their neighbors.

People were incredibly open and transparent with me in discussing their businesses. They were equally direct in expressing the challenges facing their communities, whether it was young people fleeing small towns for opportunity in big cities, or lower-income workers struggling to find transportation to employment centers, or firms struggling to find workers.

The people I've met inside and outside the Bank have made my time at the Atlanta Fed richly rewarding. When I would tour a smaller town, especially, it filled me with joy to see people excited that someone in my position would take the time to visit and listen to them. I learned a great deal on those visits, and that information added critical texture to the aggregate economic data and thus informed my monetary policy positions in a meaningful way.

So, if the job was so fulfilling, why retire?

It was not an easy call. But I'm not an impulsive decision-maker. I started pondering my long-term plans more than two years ago. As I've often said, I arrived to find the Atlanta Fed in good shape. There were things I set out to do in collaboration with the excellent leadership team. Fundamentally, we wanted to move the culture to a place of greater flexibility and more freedom to make decisions from the bottom up. We wanted to make the organization generally more agile and risk tolerant within the bounds of a central bank that inherently is notand should not bea freewheeling band of mavericks.

This evolution extended to our approach to formulating monetary policy. We aimed to include more voices in the process, hence the frequent travel across the District. I wanted to help ordinary people better understand the Fed and what we do, and also communicate in tangible ways that we are human and serve them. We worked to activate in the real world the brilliant research our team has always done via programs like the Advancing Careers for Low-Income Families initiativeand data tools such as GDPNowand our Home Ownership Affordability Monitor.

In the past few months, I began to sense that my most valuable work here might be done. My fundamental goals for the institution were being internalized sufficiently that I believed if I stayed much longer, I risked settling into the role of caretaker. That is not the sort of leader the Bank needs and deserves to continue serving the people of the Sixth Federal Reserve District.

Meanwhile, the world evolves unpredictably. Circumstances change, and with the Bank in a very strong place, I grew comfortable with the decision to move toward my next chapter.

The day I announced my decision was difficult, perhaps the most difficult of my career. I knew I would make a lot of people unhappy. At the same time, I'll admit the outpouring of affection and goodwill from the staff and larger community has been gratifying. It's made these last couple months a time of celebration and communion. Please be assured that the affection and goodwill go both ways.

It's been an honor

In retrospect, I couldn't envision how my time at the Atlanta Fed would unfold when I arrived on Peachtree Street. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had been an academic in Los Angeles for years. I had worked in Washington, DC, and grew up in New Jersey. I was the first Black and first openly gay Federal Reserve Bank president. By and large, to my relief none of that seemed to matter. People were happy to see me, eager to share their experience, and willing to collaborate to try and spread opportunity.

I want to thank the communities across the Southeast for embracing me and my husband, Jeff, and a special thanks goes to the metro Atlanta community for warmly welcoming us and allowing me to serve in important local organizations, including the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the United Way of Greater Atlanta, and the Rotary Club of Atlanta.

It has been my great honor to serve the American people as a central banker and, in particular, to serve the people of the Sixth District as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

I'm departing my day job at the Atlanta Fed, but I will remain a fervent supporter. And so, I'll close with a thought about the Fed's future. The Fed is critical to the nation's well-being. Its primary duties are to safeguard financial stability and to formulate monetary policy aimed at establishing a foundation for broad prosperity.

The Federal Reserve's ability to set monetary policy with a primary focus on the long run has been an important underpinning of the world's most trusted financial markets and most dynamic economy. But that global position is not guaranteed. Safeguarding our special status includes protecting the Fed's independence.

I think it's important that the public understand what is at stake when the Fed's independence is at risk. Decades of lived experience, as well as a large body of academic research, makes clear that a nation's economic outcomes are better when there is an independent central bank. Inflation is lower, economic performance is more robust, and consumers and businesses alike are more confident that long-run investments will be worth making.

In the United States, an independent Fed has helped keep our nation's economy the strongest in the world, a safe haven from risk and one that is admired and envied. I know my colleagues are very aware of the importance of Fed independence and are committed to that philosophy.

But my travels over the past several months have made clear that the legal and rhetorical battles raging around the central bank right now have caused people across a wide cross-section of our population to begin to doubt the Fed's independence. This is a major concern.

I won't be part of the Fed when we see resolutions of these battles. But as someone who will always believe deeply in the Federal Reserve's mission and as an American concerned about our country's future, I will be watching closely and hoping that wisdom grounded in the profound success of the US economy over many years prevails.

With that, goodbye, and thank you for your support over the past eight-plus years.