A Conversation with Raphael Bostic, President Of The Federal Reserve Bank Of Atlanta
Atlanta Federal Reserve President and CEO Raphael Bostic.
Courtesy of Raphael Bostic
WABE’s host of “All Things Considered” Jim Burress had a conversation with Raphael Bostic. He’s the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, one of a dozen reserve banks across the United States.
When they spoke, Bostic covered everything from whether he believes the COVID-19 pandemic mirrors the Great Recession or Depression, to whether lawmakers are acting quickly enough, to his view on stimulus spending and the national debt.
Burress began the conversation by asking Bostic if there is another economic stimulus, does it panic him as an economist, and did America go too far?
Bostic said he thinks it depends on what your goal is. He added, his goal is to “make sure that we do all that we can to make sure the fundamentals of the economy that we had before the virus arrived–and those fundamentals were quite strong–remain so when we are at the point where the virus is under control, and we are moving to a new normal. If that doesn’t happen… then the recovery is going to be much more difficult…We should do all that we can to make sure that we get through this crisis with as many fundamentals as possible intact. The more that are intact, the stronger the recovery will be.”
Bostic added, “There remains a lot of uncertainty.” And he continued, “This is an unprecedented event in my lifetime. One of the most important things you can do is be alert, aware, notice things as they are developing.”
And he added, “Act on what you learn.” He also said his team is ” is working hard to ensure policy is deployed on time.”
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