Joseph Tracy, Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor to the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, spoke at the sixth annual “Outlook on the Economy: National and Regional Perspectives.”
Two senior leaders from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York were optimistic during their annual presentation “Outlook on the Economy: National and Regional Perspectives” on January 13, 2017, in the Fury Lecture Hall in the Prusmack Center.
Joseph Tracy, Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor to the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Jason Bram, Research Officer, Regional Analysis Function, spoke about the latest economic indicators.
Tracy said the firming in inflation, and the healthier labor market may prompt the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to consider normalizing monetary policy. He explained the key issue for policymakers, “If they start raising interest rates, will the economy continue to make progress, toward particularly the inflation objective, without harming in some sense the employment objective? Or is there a risk that those interest rate increases could stall the economy?”
Tracy is the Chair of the Regulatory Oversight Committee for the Global Legal Entity Identifier System (GLEIS). His primary research interests include unions and collective bargaining, as well as housing and urban economics. Previously, Tracy was an associate professor at Yale University and Columbia University.
Bram focused on regional indicators and said that although the Rockland County housing market has not come back yet, there are encouraging anecdotal reports for the lower Hudson Valley Valley. “There’s been a big pick-up in activity, apparently. So demand has picked up, it just hasn’t come into prices yet, “ he said.
Bram’s research and analysis focuses on the U.S. economy, with a primary emphasis on the Federal Reserve’s Second District, which includes New York State, northern New Jersey and southwestern Connecticut, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He produces the regional Beige Book reports, and uses monthly business surveys to monitor and analyze current and emerging economic trends and issues of concern.
This is the sixth year that Dominican College has presented “Outlook on the Economy.”