You don’t have to think about, well, why am I doing this exactly? Well, we’re trying to serve the public interest, keep the economy on an even-keel, and execute on our mission as the New York Fed. The New York Fed is a little different than the other Reserve Banks because we’re really the operational arm of the Federal Reserve System for many, many different things. So, it’s sort of interesting. We do policy, and we do operations. Very unlike most central banks around the world, where the policy and operations are all in headquarters down in Washington. In the Federal Reserve it’s split, with the New York Fed doing a lot of the operational activities of the Federal Reserve System. It’s a pretty cool place. Check us out! Dr. Olajide Oladipo: I will surely do. The Federal Reserve has been around since 1913. How would you compare the 1929 Depression to that of 2008? President Dudley: Well, very different outcome. In 1929, the stock market crash led to a widespread banking panic, where people basically tried to get their money out of banks because they were afraid the banks were going to fail. And of course in the process of trying to pull all those deposits out of the banks, the banks didn’t have enough money, so a lot of banks actually did fail. And in fact, in 1933, FDR declared a national banking holiday where all the banks were closed for a period of time.
In fact, if you could tell me that we could just stay here for the next 20 or 30 years, I would be very happy with that. So, things are going pretty well. What’s driving the economy? I think in the local economy in Queens, it’s very dependent on transportation, very high level of transportation employment, in part because of La Guardia and JFK. Those industries are doing quite well. Tourism is important to this region, so New York City has really benefited from tourism. And the fact that people want to live in cities now as opposed to live in suburbs or more rural areas is also helping a lot. In terms of actual employment in this area, you have the transportation component. Healthcare is also very, very important. A lot of uncertainties on that front. Maybe we’ll get some resolution of some of those uncertainties today. Also business and professional services is a very important driver of growth in this area. Dr. Olajide Oladipo: Thank you. From your perspective, which sector do you think is actually propelling the growth? President Dudley: Well, I think – one thing that’s been really good for New York City over the last few years, it’s become much more diversified as an economy. In the old days, New York City was sort of rise and fall, depending on how the financial services industry was doing, especially the securities industry. And what’s happened in the last few years is the securities industry employment has been pretty flat.