Farewell and Thank You

BY PATRICK T. HARKER

On June 30, I will reach the Federal Reserve’s time and service limits as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. In other words, it’s time to say goodbye to this position I’ve truly enjoyed for ten years.

As I contemplate this impending retirement, it is giving me a natural opportunity to look back over the entire course of my career. Suffice it to say, this small-in-size-only state has played an outsized role in my professional life for the past 18 years.

Although I had lived, studied, and worked within just a few miles of Delaware for most of my life, my direct involvement with the First State didn’t begin until July 1, 2007—the day I assumed the presidency of the University of Delaware. The eight years I spent leading the state’s flagship university provided me a first-hand view of the underpinnings of Delaware’s economy and introduced me to so many of the people who make it run.

And throughout the past decade at the Philly Fed, I have relied upon that knowledge and those contacts, along with many others, to provide me with the soft data that has helped convert the black-and-white economic numbers I receive into living color.

Through you, I have been able to get a much more vibrant picture of economic conditions across Delaware. From conditions facing the credit card industry, to small-business activity and manufacturing, to tourism, to the poultry industry—and all other matters in between—these insights have been invaluable to me and my colleagues at the Philadelphia Fed. I have also taken them directly to the Federal Open Market Committee conference table in Washington, D.C.

The Third District is the smallest by area of the 12 districts that make up the Federal Reserve System. But, like Delaware, what this district may lack in size it more than makes up for in impact. Moreover, being compact provides its advantages. For one, I can travel the length of the district in a day, which has proven beneficial for meeting with people where they work and live. Additionally, an economic happening in one corner of the Third District is likely not going to be an independent event but can have a ripple effect all the way to another corner. Your reports on conditions as you see them here in Delaware have allowed me to track these ripples from the moment they are first felt and to work accordingly for the benefit of every community across the entire district.

I cannot thank you enough for never being shy about your thoughts and opinions. I cannot thank you enough for the way you have always welcomed me and others from the Philly Fed into your communities for in-depth discussions on what you’re seeing, what you’re hearing, and what you think we need to take a look at, too.

Yet as much as I write those words in the past tense, my thoughts remain very much in the present. Make no mistake: Though my remaining service time at the Philly Fed is limited, I am committed to the task until my retirement. We currently face any number of uncertainties, both nationally and globally—from the continuing efforts to bring inflation to heel to responding to the impacts of shifts in economic policies—and I will continue to watch the data, listen to your reports, and act accordingly.

My closing hope is that you will welcome my successor at the Philadelphia Fed with the same openness and sense of partnership that has highlighted our work together. A strong focus on soft data is vital and has changed the way we work for the better. Continuing to provide your timely insights to my colleagues at the Philly Fed will keep breathing life into raw data.

But most of all, I hope you will accept my sincerest thanks for all that Delaware has meant to me over the past 18 years.