Dr. Raphael Bostic, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, spoke to a captive audience of Management of Financial Institutions (MGT 3079) students at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business on Thursday, September 1. Gary T. Jones, professor of the practice in Finance, invited Bostic to his classroom to learn from Bostic’s inspiring background and career, help students understand the structure and responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System, and gain insight into the current inflationary environment.
“Inflation is too high, and we have got to bring it down to our target,” said Bostic, noting that the current pace of inflation is a long way from the Fed’s goal. “We’ve got some work to do. We have got to figure out how fast we are going to move our policy to try to arrest that inflation and to wrestle it back down to 2%.”
Bostic also described the economic impacts of policies and actions to combat inflation.
“When you bring demand down, that has the risk of slowing the economy down so that the economy stops growing, where it loses all of its momentum, and then you might get to a situation that some would describe as recessionary,” Bostic explained.
Students also had the opportunity to pose their questions to Bostic. Bostic provided insights into a wide range of student questions, ranging from the Fed’s ability to regulate new digital financial service companies to the future of rent and home ownership for a rising generation of young professionals.
Bostic took office as the 15th president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta on June 5, 2017. He is responsible for all the Bank's activities, including monetary policy, bank supervision and regulation, and payment services. In addition, he serves on the Federal Reserve's chief monetary policy body, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Bostic previously served as the Judith and John Bedrosian Chair in Governance and the Public Enterprise at the University of Southern California. Prior to joining USC, he was the former assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and worked as a senior economist for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
Jones is a valued alumnus of Georgia Tech who went on to earn his MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. He is the retired managing director of Credit Suisse who joined Scheller as a Professor of the Practice in Finance. He also serves on the Scheller Advisory Board, where he acted as chairman for two terms from 1999 to 2003. Jones is also chairman emeritus for the Georgia Tech Foundation.