Thank you, President Barkin, for that kind introduction. And thank you to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and your partners across the Federal Reserve System for organizing this timely and important conference this year and for the past several years. It is a delight and a privilege to be back in North Carolina where I spent the summers and holidays of my childhood. In fact, the summer after the TV series "Roots" aired, my parents packed my sisters and me up in our lime green station wagon, and we traversed much of the state identifying and meeting our relatives and researching our family's ancestry. This was significantly before we had AI, Google and Ancestry.com searches at our fingertips, and it was a real opportunity to discover rural North Carolina. It is a distinct pleasure to be back here in Asheville, especially at this colorful, beautiful time of year. And the people of Asheville and the rest of western North Carolina remain in my thoughts and prayers as you continue to recover from Hurricane Helene.
As a Fed Governor, my charge is to set policy that will best achieve maximum employment and stable prices for all Americans, including those of us who live in rural communities. I care about those communities as a policymaker and as an economist, but also as someone who grew up in a small town in central Georgia: Milledgeville. That makes this conference of special interest to me. I know firsthand how hard people in rural areas work, how intensely they care for their families and neighbors, and how much they contribute to their communities and to the entire economy. In turn, it is only appropriate that we have events like this to inform policymakers about how residents of rural areas are experiencing and contributing to the economy.
As some of you may know, this is the first year that the scope of the Investing in Rural America conference has been national. It is also the first time that all 12 Reserve Banks and the Board of Governors have partnered to organize and present this conference. Congratulations to the Richmond Fed and the other Reserve Banks for achieving these firsts! The Systemwide commitment to this signature event is an acknowledgment of the importance of rural communities to the national economy and to the Federal Reserve.