At 10-year mark, Boston Fed team visits former mill city to celebrate its resurgence

Collins sees progress in fight against inflation

Collins' speech at the Lawrence Partnership celebration focused in part on the Fed's continuing efforts to control inflation, which she likened to "a tax that affects us all."

She said that while the Fed had made significant progress, inflation has stubbornly remained well above the Fed's 2% target. But she hailed recent data that showed modest progress.

"In my view, the data suggest an economy with demand and supply coming into better balance, which is what's required in order to restore price stability," she said. "But this process may just take more time than previously thought."

Collins heard about the impacts of inflation during a discussion with Lawrence entrepreneurs and small business owners at a meeting after the Lawrence Partnership event.

Alberto Nunez of the property management firm Syramad Properties, Inc., talked to Collins about the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel."

"That tunnel, for the cost of living and rent, is dark for me," he said. "I don't know where we're going."

Collins said she's heard similar worries around New England, which emphasizes to her the importance of the Fed's work to slow inflation and create a more stable economic environment.

"It takes time, and it takes patience, and patience is really hard when people are struggling," Collins said.

Executives highlight impacts of high inflation, high turnover

The final event of the day was a discussion held at promotional products supplier Gemline. There, regional executives from the health care, food, apparel, and manufacturing sectors talked about struggling to keep prices and wages competitive in an inflationary environment. They said turnover is a challenge, driven in part by a lack of affordable child care and adequate public transportation.

Dr. Guy Fish, CEO of the Greater Lawrence Health Center, said the stresses from COVID-19 pushed a lot of their workers out. And he said the recent graduates they've hired to replace them are very sensitive to cost-of-living pressures that have been exacerbated by inflation. They'll leave quickly for relatively small raises.

Collins said the Fed's aim, and the heart of its 2% inflation target, is to create a business environment where price increases and their cascading effects are no longer the key concern.

"That's what I'm looking for, an environment where people are thinking about how to be more productive, how to train, how to develop, how to open doors," she said. "They're not thinking about inflation."

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.