“We believe rural communities will achieve longer-term, more durable success if they look inside their boundaries for opportunities to invest in and focus on,” says Daniel Paul Davis, vice president and community affairs officer at the St. Louis Fed. Davis joins Andrew Dumont, senior community development analyst at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, as they discuss a new book they co-edited, Investing in Rural Prosperity.

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Timely Topics Economic Equity: Rural Prosperity in Focus

William M. Rodgers III, vice president and director of the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discusses how the St. Louis Fed works to promote a more inclusive and equitable economy: “We are focused on advancing research that informs equity-based policies and practices leading to an economy that works for everybody.”

Timely Topics Economic Equity: The Institute for Economic Equity

Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discusses how the post-World War II Bretton Woods agreement applies to life in 2021—a time when America and the world are in various stages of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

How Lessons from 1944 Bretton Woods Apply to Pandemic Recovery

“We really needed to help move the needle on educational materials, and so, we’re working to provide educators with up-to-date information and quality teaching resources,” says Federal Reserve Economist Jane Ihrig. She joins economic education coordinator Scott Wolla in discussing how educators should update their teaching on Fed monetary policy tools.

Teaching about New Monetary Policy Tools

Juan Sanchez, assistant vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, talks about trends in credit card debt, mortgage debt and foreclosures during the pandemic and how they compare with those of the financial crisis.

Consumer Debt Trends during the Pandemic

“Access to college types can be used as an effective tool for the purpose of fighting inequality,” says Oksana Leukhina, economist and research officer at the St. Louis Fed. She talks about how changes to the current meritocratic college admissions system in the U.S. could combat inequality.

Meritocracy in College Admissions

Meredith Covington, Supervisory Policy and Risk Analysis manager, and Ana Hernández Kent, Institute for Economic Equity senior researcher, discuss how the “she-cession” is disproportionately affecting women of color and sparking conversations about caregiving responsibilities.

The Pandemic Worsened Inequities for Working Women. What Now?

Oksana Leukhina, economist and research officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, talks about the importance of students understanding the college selection process in the U.S. to tip the scale in their direction.

Student Sorting in the College Selection Process

Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, discusses what firms consider when weighing the decision to post wages for open positions or negotiate with prospective employees instead.

Wage Posting and Job Searching

Four senior executives at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis talk about their careers, challenges they have faced as Black Americans and what organizations and allies can do to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

Economic Equity: St. Louis Fed Leaders

YiLi Chien, economist and research officer at the St. Louis Fed, discusses how investing in the stock market can play a role in wealth inequality. He also explains why some people may choose to not invest in stocks, despite their higher returns historically.

Timely Topics Economic Equity: Inequality and Stock Market Participation

The St. Louis Fed’s Community Development team discusses their work to promote a more inclusive, equitable economy, “one in which everyone can derive benefit regardless of their background, the color of their skin, their gender, or the ZIP code where they reside.”

Timely Topics Economic Equity: Community Development

Researchers at the St. Louis Fed’s Center for Household Financial Stability discuss how demographic variables—such as birth year, race and education—play into the state of wealth and equity in the United States.

Timely Topics Equity: Demographics

Alexander Monge-Naranjo, research officer and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, briefly talks about both the challenges and opportunities presented to the U.S. as the rest of the world becomes better educated.

Educated Workers and America’s Competitiveness

David Andolfatto, senior vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, talks about how a hot money credit program could help kick-start the stalled economy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 and Hot Money Credits

In these podcasts, economists and others with expertise in their fields talk about issues in the news, their research, popular products and services of the St. Louis Fed.

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