michelle w bowman : opening remarks - " fed listens " speech by ms michelle w bowman, member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at a fed listens event on " exploring challenges facing the childcare industry, working parents, and employers ", chicago, illinois, 10 july 2024. * * * thank you, austan, for the warm welcome. it is really a pleasure to join you in chicago for this year's fed listens event. 1 when we started fed listens back in 2019, the initiative was part of a broad, comprehensive review of the decisionmaking framework we use to pursue our monetary policy goals of maximum employment and price stability. in the years that followed, we have met with people from across the country and from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to learn about how the economy has been recovering from the covid experience. each fed listens event created a wonderful opportunity to take a step back, to ask questions of those who are directly impacted by our policies and the prevailing economic conditions, and then really listen to their feedback. i am extremely proud that fed listens has grown and developed into an ongoing venue for the federal reserve board and the reserve banks to foster an ongoing conversation and discussion with those who are directly experiencing current economic conditions. as many of you may recall, at last year's fed listens event here in chicago, we discussed youth employment and joining the labor force following the pandemic, which were especially inspiring. so, in that spirit, today is not only a wonderful opportunity to continue this important conversation in the seventh district, but also an opportunity to dig deeper into issues that affect local families through the childcare industry, working parents, and employers. austan and i enjoyed getting to know our panelists better earlier today, and i am looking forward to learning more about their experiences through the upcoming panels and discussions. i am also very pleased to welcome our audience - both in person and those tuning in online. i view fed listens as an excellent example of board and system convenings that enable us to gain important insights about economic conditions by engaging directly with those experiencing the economy. as you all know, fed officials and economists review a vast amount of economic data on a regular basis. discussions like those we will engage in today provide color and context to supplement the other economic data we monitor. your perspectives help us gain deeper insights into how we are meeting our dual mandate of maintaining maximum employment and stable prices.

to conclude remote financial services contracts and to establish business relationships with clients via video identification, this being another field where we were among the pioneers in europe. in addition, we established cooperation with several local it companies to consider the potential for the implementation of blockchain technology. i take great pride in the fact that colleagues from many central banks have shown interest in our solutions, and of course, we are more than happy to exchange experience with them. ladies and gentlemen, ( slide 9 ) like i said at the beginning of my speech, we must cooperate in order to be able to rise to the challenges ahead. cooperation enables us to understand each other and to learn and improve ourselves based on successful real life examples. for only if we are ready to learn from each other, can we continue developing the world ’ s central banking practice. as ivo andric, our nobel prize winner once said, bridges show the place where humankind encountered an obstacle and did not stop before it, but overcame and bridged it the way humankind could, according to understanding, taste, and circumstances. our cooperation therefore reflects a natural human need to connect and provide a joint response to the obstacles we all face. as long as this is the case, i am confident that we will leave a more secure and sustainable world to the generations that follow. thank you! 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches