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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a speech given by Tom Barkin at the Investing in Rural America conference in Roanoke, Virginia, on May 20, 2025. It has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
The Richmond Fed is an on-the-ground Fed. We spend a lot of our time meeting with business and community leaders across the Fifth District, including in many small towns. These conversations provide valuable insights into rural economies and the unique challenges they face. We then try to share those lessons more broadly, including at this conference. Today, I want to talk about one of those unique challenges: the challenge of growth…