But we will go nowhere unless we catch that wind,” as President Juncker said in his 2017 State of the Union address. We can use the current good times to make our economies more resilient. This means building fiscal buffers and implementing further economic reforms to strengthen the foundations of our Economic and Monetary Union.
I now have the honor of being the first governor to fill the role designated for someone with community banking experience on the Federal Reserve Board, a position that was created by statute in 2015.1 I plan to fulfill this unique responsibility by traveling widely and listening closely to community bankers, consumers, farmers, ranchers, and dairy farmers—all of the stakeholders with an interest in our work.