Since the beginning of her tenure as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 2011, Esther George has proven herself “hawkish” as a monetary policymaker. In 2019, George voted against all three Fed Funds rate reductions, saying last September that sluggish economic expansion wasn’t concerning enough to warrant accommodation given historically low unemployment and stable inflation. [Continue]
The Federal Reserve, with its enormous capacity for research, tells us the coronavirus recession has hit women and minority populations hard due to disruptions in the retail and service sectors. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in June that the persons least able to weather an economic downturn are now carrying the greatest burden. [Continue]
Back in spring, when the coronavirus first upended American life the supply chain that supports the U.S. dairy industry collapsed. Producers responded by dumping milk down the drain and calling, en masse, for government intervention. Part of the federal response to aggrieved producers is the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. [Continue]
A white paper on the challenges facing commercial real estate published this spring by McKinsey & Company argues that the imperative to physically distance from our workplace colleagues due to the coronavirus has changed the demand for many types of space, creating an “unprecedented crisis for the real estate industry.” [Continue]
Cities and counties now budget for huge payouts to cover police misconduct. If you don’t think police brutality affects you, your time has come. [Continue]
Heather Malcolm wants people to understand that ag lending is more than a subset of commercial lending. In fact, Malcolm believes ag lending is different enough — and the ag relationship important enough — that she invested time and talent to advocate resurrecting the agricultural track within the American Bankers Association’s Commercial Lending School, including writing some of its curriculum. [Continue]
St. Paul, Minn.-based Bremer Bank faces its “Moment of Truth” during the COVID-19 pandemic, said President and CEO Jeanne Crain. [Continue]
In March, Joy Kitzan, senior vice president Dakota Community Bank & Trust, Hebron, N.D., received a call from the principal of her local K-12 school with a need. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum had just directed educators to put together a distance learning program for the state’s schoolchildren in response to the coronavirus pandemic. They had about two weeks to plan. [Continue]
Kristina K. Williams became president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines on January 20 of this year, and was soon thereafter reminded that life has a relentless ability to deliver the unexpected. In the earliest days of the pandemic, Williams took charge, organizing a crisis plan, sending roughly 90 percent of her workforce to home offices while keeping 5 percent at the bank’s disaster recovery site and another 5 percent at headquarters. [Continue]
All over my social media feeds, I’ve seen chronicles of outsized efforts by dozens of other community banks to process PPP loans. I congratulate all of these banking teams for stepping up to help customers and non-customers alike. Millions of business owners are breathing a bit easier because of your efforts — kudos to you and your teams. [Continue]