Federal Reserve Bank: Private Luncheon and Tour, “Current Economic Trends in the U.S. and Asia”
By Sarah Cummins, FWSF committee member
On July 10, 2019, Financial Women of San Francisco (FWSF) hosted an industry leadership event at the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) of San Francisco. The sold-out event, held in the Janet Yellen Conference room, featured speaker Liz Laderman, Senior Outreach Economist, FRB of San Francisco, and Cindy Li, Manager, Country Analysis Unit, FRB of San Francisco, who gave insights into current economic trends in the U.S. and Asia, respectively.
The event started with an introduction on diversity, especially women in the workplace. The visibility of women in the executive leadership at the FRB of San Francisco has been increasing over the years. Not only is the president and chief executive officer of the FRB of San Francisco a woman, but there are several women on the executive leadership team, including, the head of Financial Institution Supervision and Credit (FISC).
Liz Laderman started off the conversation by focusing on current economic trends in the U.S. She reiterated that growth is expected to slow towards its sustainable pace, growth will stay below the natural rate of unemployment, and underlying inflation will drift up a bit, but stay close to 2%. She continued, as anyone who studies economics knows, everything has a cause and effect. Next up, Cindy Li went into the current economic trends in Asia. Additionally, she commented that in current projections, Asia is projected to outgrow the rest of the world in 2019. One of the current major risks is the trade war between the U.S. and China.
The lunch discussion was followed by a tour of the FRB. We started out by walking into a cold room with all the notes in the history of the U.S. It was absolutely fascinating to see the evolution of different drafts of our notes which led to what is currently being printed today. Did you know that there was a 100,000 note that was briefly traded as bank tender? After walking around the room with all the notes, we went downstairs to check out where money is brought in from surrounding banks and counted, then kept/tossed (depending on the condition of the note). The event was another example of how FWSF provides unique opportunities for women in the Bay Area to learn and grow.
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FWSF has other exciting events coming up, check out our Events Calendar.
Also, we are always looking for attendees who want to provide a summary of the event. If you volunteer, you can attend free of charge. Contact Marianne LaPorte, co-chair of MarComm, if interested: mariannepri@hotmail.com.