Raphael Bostic is ‘looking for the next chapter’ after leading Atlanta Fed
When Raphael Bostic stepped down as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta at the end of February, he said the first day of his retirement he was going to sleep in.
“The idea is really just to exhale, to relax, to recover and to try to just clear my head of all the things that I’ve just had to be juggling, and then see what comes in,” Bostic said at the time on the Atlanta Fed’s “Economy Matters” podcast.
Now, six months later, he’s stepping back into the spotlight.
In early September, Bostic spoke at Delta Fest, a multiday gathering in Jackson, Mississippi, “designed to activate economic prosperity across the Deep South,” according to the event’s site.
The appearance was “basically kicking off my more public element aspects of my new chapter,” Bostic told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the event in early September. His remarks came before Wednesday’s action by the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate to help curtail inflation.
“The thing I liked about Delta Fest is really that its goal is to try to have the economy work better for everyone, and when you think about the Mississippi Delta region of the United States, that’s a place where … people have really struggled in the economy,” he said.
“We’ve seen a lot of precariousness and a lot of people struggling to just make ends meet. So anything that’s going to try to change that trajectory, I think, is quite appealing and important.”
During his nearly nine-year tenure leading the Atlanta Fed, Bostic directed attention to economic immobility and inequality, and pushed business, civic and government leaders to acknowledge diversity not simply as a moral issue but as an economic imperative. Bostic was also the first Black and first openly gay chief executive of a regional Fed bank.
Bostic spoke with the AJC about what he has been up to in the six months since he retired, the ongoing search for the next Atlanta Fed president, the individual opportunities artificial intelligence and data centers present, and how to make the economy work for everyone.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Can you tell me a little bit of what you’ve been up to since retiring?
A: So, nothing professional. I decided to take a six-month sabbatical and just travel around and just be a regular person for a while, and it’s been very nice.
We got to the six-month point Sept. 1, so this is a new development, and so now I’m actually turning to start to think about what things to do.
Q: It’s still a difficult labor market, wage growth is slowing and then the Atlanta Fed’s Beige Book this month showed that spending is still high for affluent consumers, while lower and middle class are struggling.
You talked a bit about shared prosperity and how to make the economy work better for everyone during Delta Fest. What do you think needs to change to make things feel better for people in the South, or broadly in the U.S.?
A: Really thinking about this in sort of, not in a three-month arc, but much more in a three-year to five-year arc. And the thing that’s required for that is having an infrastructure that is understood by the general public, by people who are looking to participate, and also having processes in place that give people a fair opportunity or to apply to participate to compete for that work.
Now, the next step is taking that knowledge and using it to then position yourself to participate. … For small business leaders, for local communities, for contractors and the like, to find ways to plug in and be participants to help create all of this infrastructure around AI, around advanced manufacturing, around broadband. You think about energy generation and natural gas and pipelines. There are so many things and so much money that is slated to come to the region.
Q: How can people get into that, if they are feeling like they’ve been looking for jobs for a year, sent hundreds of applications, nobody’s biting? What sort of advice would you give to folks to try to get into where this investment’s going?
A: The first one is really to be aware of where the emergent jobs are likely to be, and then get skills in those areas.
(Data centers) are, at their heart, construction projects. And so when you think about the jobs that are going to be more broadly available, the construction sector is going to be one of them. So that would be trades like being carpenters or welders or plumbers. They’re going to be in great demand. And the thing that is also true is that these are job categories where we’ve had shortages for quite some time, so anyone who presents or shows up with those skills is going to get hired, and they’re going to get a good salary. So, making sure people are aware that there are these good jobs out there, and that there are pathways to actually get the skills to be able to do those jobs.
The thing that is particularly exciting is that there are so many projects here that this is not just going to be like a two-year bubble. I think there’s going to be work to be done here for quite some time, so that even if people don’t have those skills, there’s time for them to get them, so they can be there to participate in these projects and really benefit from the capital that’s flowing into these regions.
Q: For folks who are not feeling excited or not feeling optimistic, what would you say to them about the opportunities that data centers, AI, this current economy presents?
A: The first thing I say is I understand why you’re not feeling so good, right? Prices are too high, inflation is too high and policymakers need to get that under control.
That said, there are opportunities out there, and there are opportunities that are truly accessible. You don’t need to get eight years of university training to get these. They’re there, and so talk to people, do your research, pull the Yancey report (on the approximately $271 billion being invested in the Deep South) and see what kind of projects are in the states where you live, and then call your community college and ask: Do you have programs on these things? Do you have training that allows me to get credentialed so that I can go get that work?
The message is: This is not the time to despair.
Q: You said that policymakers need to get inflation down. What has it been like over the past six months to no longer be one of those policymakers, to be watching from the outside as inflation continues to affect Americans?
A: Well, it’s definitely been different. I will say that the decisions to retire never come lightly, but I made it with a degree of certainty that it was time for me to go to a next chapter. And so, while I miss the team, I miss seeing them every day, I’m comfortable sort of being on a different side of the policy process. I will say it’s a much less stressful side. So, I do feel like I’ve reclaimed some of my peace and calmness and perspective and appreciation for nonwork things, which has been much needed.
So this next chapter (is) about being out talking about things, helping people see opportunities and helping policymakers who are trying to … make that difference and set things up so that the economy does work for everyone.
Q: Are you now like a consultant or have your own business?
A: I’m available for talking and consultation and all those sorts of things. I did set up an LLC through which to run all of those sort of advisory services. So folks are welcome to engage. Now, I do still want to leave some space to have some fun, so I won’t be doing everything all the time, but happy to talk to folks and see if there are ways where collaboration is possible.
Q: Do you have any insight on how the search is going for your successor?
A: I am watching it, just like everyone else is at this point. I would say I’m hopeful that they find someone soon. I don’t think it’s the best for the institution or for the region to not have someone in that position in a more permanent capacity. So I’m hopeful that that process resolves itself quickly.
I can then be an adviser to my successor to help them be as successful as possible.
Q: Are there any new issues that have popped up over the past six months that you feel like your successor will have to deal with?
A: I would say from a policymaking perspective, the world evolves continuously, but that’s not a new thing. …
But the job is one that is multifaceted, you get to see lots of people, and those things are all going to stay. And I think that the new person will find it to be quite an engaging experience, and one that brings them in touch with a lot of really interesting and smart people.
Q: Are you reading the tea leaves of what’s coming out of the Federal Open Market Committee’s comments like, will there be interest rate cuts, interest rate increases? [On Wednesday, the committee raised rates.]
A: I’m now officially a tea leaf reader, as opposed to someone whose voice moves those factors and it’ll be interesting to see what happens.
The economy looks very strong, labor markets look stable and inflation is too high, and so that combination I think points to the committee having to seriously consider whether their policy rate is doing enough to get inflation back to its 2% target.