But we are united in our commitment to our dual mandate and in our belief that Fed independence is essential to the public interest, because it allows us to make tough decisions insulated from short-term political pressures. At FOMC meetings, each Committee member presents a current outlook for his or her region and the nation. For these assessments, we consult our researchers and add critical information that we learn from listening to our boards of directors, regional advisory councils and community leaders, such as you and others I’ll meet on this visit. This trip includes a meeting with the Long Island Housing Partnership – and a visit to some distressed neighborhoods, a tour of the D’Addario string factory and lunch with its workers; and concludes with a tour and meeting at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  At the New York Fed, we continually track conditions in our District, and we have created a number of tools for that purpose. For example, my staff produces monthly indexes of economic activity for New York City, the entire state of New York, and New Jersey. These indexes are essentially measures of local output – similar to gross domestic product, or GDP, at the national level. These measures provide a more complete gauge of activity than the employment report, which is another important metric at the state level.
William C Dudley: The national and regional economic outlook Remarks by Mr William C Dudley, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, at the Long Island Association, Melville, New York, 19 March 2012. *  *  *  Good morning. I am pleased to be here on Long Island. It is always a pleasure to speak with the business community because of the leadership role you play in your communities and in shaping the economic landscape in the region. So, I thank you all for coming today. Over the past few years, I have been engaged in a series of outreach meetings all across my Federal Reserve District. For example, in 2010 I visited several upstate cities. Early last year I made visits to various parts of the city – Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens – and to Puerto Rico. In August, I met with community and business leaders and elected officials in Newark, Patterson and Jersey City. In November, I went to West Point and the Capital region. I consider these visits just as important as my trips to Washington, D.C., to help formulate monetary policy or to Switzerland to help shape international bank regulation. Each visit within the region helps me to deepen the relationships with the people I represent. I believe that the understanding of issues and concerns that I gain today will help ensure that the Fed’s policy decisions reflect the public interest in the broadest sense.