AmiSight 7/14: Tariffs, Jobs, and Interest Rates: A Fed President’s View from the Ground
- Ami Kassar
- Jul 14
- 1 min read
Although many think of the Fed as a Washington-based institution led by Chair Jerome Powell, the system is actually made up of 12 regional banks, each led by a president who brings local insight to national policy discussions.
The Wall Street Journal followed Richmond, Va. Fed President Tom Barkin as he met with local business leaders to discuss the current economic climate. Like all regional presidents, Barkin participates in the Fed’s policy meetings in Washington eight times a year and takes turns voting on interest rates.
Among the questions he asks business leaders are: Are you planning to expand or shrink your workforces? Are you making new investments or pulling back? These questions inevitably circle back to Trump’s tariffs.
The answers suggest two plausible scenarios: Businesses could successfully pass along more tariff costs and create new anxieties around inflation, or they could find themselves forced to absorb those costs and cut workers to protect profits – both of which would create headaches for Fed policymakers.
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