- Guest Speaker today was Erick Garcia Luna, Outreach Director from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve:
- Erick thanked the Rotary club for inviting him to share today and said he is already inspired by this group.
- 9th Federal Reserve District covers 1800 miles and 9.7 million people composing of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, 26 counties in northwestern Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
- Headquarters in Helena Montana and Minneapolis Minnesota. The Minneapolis location has 1,000 employees and Helena location has 60.
- Erick explained the Federal Reserve and how it is operated including explaining the Federal Open Market Committee – who sets the interest rates.
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- The US and MN has had solid economic growth following 2020. Rice County has shared in the economic growth. Erick showed charts illustrating both.
- Latest decline in GDP is driven by imports – Erick showed a chart illustrating contributions to percentage change. This contributed negatively to inflation.
- Consumer Price Index Inflation chart showing core and headline data over the last several years. Personal Consumption Expended Inflation is the federal preferred measurement. He showed a PCE chart as well. Both charts showed a decrease from a couple years ago.
- Contributions to PCE inflation chart showing key pieces to inflation are energy, food, goods, and services.
- Charts all illustrated highest recent times of inflation around 2021, 2022 and 2023. They have declined in 2024 and 2025.
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- Erick talked about factors that contributed to inflation in recent years.
- The Labor Market – chart illustrated employment growth in all industries has increased in the US and MN since the pandemic when there was a large decline.
- The unemployment rate has gone down since the pandemic and job openings has gone up.
- Declining labor force participation in MN and the US is the concerning area that Erick described. Aging population and slow birth rate are one reason he mentioned.
- Erick answered questions about the history of the Federal Reserve and government debt.
- The beige book – a summary of commentary on current economic conditions by the federal reserve district. It includes surveys, roundtables, conversations with contacts, and institutional intelligence.
- Erick thanked everyone for having him to present today and answered some additional questions from Rotarians.
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