What a Fed President Hears When He Goes on the Road

SPEAKER_1 (0:03)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

Tracy Alloway (0:19)

That's Tom Barkin, president and CEO of the Richmond Fed, one of the 12 regional banks of the Federal Reserve.

Joe Weisenthal (0:25)

He's talking to executives at Carport Central, a manufacturing firm that builds and sells carports, garages, barns and even homes made out of metal tubing.

Tracy Alloway (0:34)

In addition to being a voting member of the central bank's monetary policy body, the FOMC, Tom's responsible for actually implementing that policy in his district.

Joe Weisenthal (0:46)

He's on one of his regular listening tours, traveling by car around the Richmond Fed area, which covers DC and several Southeast states, including North Carolina, where we are right now. In Mount Erie, North Carolina, to be exact.

Tracy Alloway (0:58)

Tom's invited us to come along as he learns about the businesses in his district and what they're seeing when it comes to inflation, the labor market, consumer demand, and the general economic outlook.

Albert Lara (1:09)

Thank you guys for coming out, first of all. We don't know whatever you guys need from us. We're here to answer the questions and kind of tell you about our industry.

Thomas Barkin (1:17)

We're interested in demand, we're interested in labor markets, we're interested in supply chains, we're interested in pricing. Perfect.

Joe Weisenthal (1:23)

You'll get to hear what a Fed president hears as he embarks on one of these research trips. What are the questions he asks to get a better handle on the direction of the economy?

And what kind of questions get asked to him?

Tracy Alloway (1:48)

We're also going to hear from local businesses themselves and learn about things like carports, thermal underwear, and spinning yarn from plastic bottles.

Joe Weisenthal (1:57)

And we'll hear some of the challenges and opportunities facing some of America's small towns. Things like shrinking populations, housing shortages, and the difficulty of finding child care.

This is Odd Lots On The Road.

Tracy Alloway (2:36)

Historic downtown Mount Airy. There's a candy store.

SPEAKER_1 (2:41)

Let's go there.

Tracy Alloway (2:42)

In many ways, Mount Airy really is the quintessential American small town.

Sitting in Surry County in the northwest corner of North Carolina, it was the inspiration for Mayberry, the fictional idyllic home of the Andy Griffith Show. It's also the first leg of Barkin's trip for this week.

Thomas Barkin (2:59)

We try to go to places that we haven't been. The big cities work themselves. I'm there naturally to give speeches to Rotary Clubs or Chambers of Commerce, but the small towns, you have to put them on your calendar.

And we picked about Eric because we hadn't been here before and we'd heard some interesting stuff about what they're doing in the workforce.

Joe Weisenthal (3:15)

Once the locations are chosen, Barkin and his team generate a list of the region's key employers, then start reaching out to set up interviews and maybe a meal or two with some of the local community leaders.

Thomas Barkin (3:25)

We always want to find whoever the biggest businesses are and try to understand because they'll have the best input on the labor market.

And then I do try to do a roundtable where I can of whatever the core business is in that community. It was aquaculture in the northern neck, it's tourism in a place like Mount Airy. I'm trying to understand the core part of every town's economy and how that's performing.

Joe Weisenthal (3:49)

Tom's not wrong about the importance of tourism in Mount Airy. The Andy Griffith Museum and Mayberry-themed shops on Main Street inspire thousands of tourists to come every year.

Tracy Alloway (3:58)

It's a pretty cute town. There's a downtown area with a store that sells moonshine ice cream, which was delicious. There's Mayberry RFD cop cars parked on the street and a gospel music store selling guitars, which you love, Joe.

Joe Weisenthal (4:12)

I did. But there's also other types of businesses around too. Take, for instance, Carport Central. The company makes these outdoor structures that you can use to protect your car from rain or snow or sun. But it also makes bigger things, like barn dominiums or prefabricated houses.

It's actually one of several companies in the immediate area that manufactures these structures, making the rural county a sort of hub for the industry.

Tracy Alloway (4:36)

Albert Lara, the president of Carport Central, explains to Tom why that is.

Albert Lara (4:41)

My brother and I have been in this industry over close to 24, 25 years. So almost since it first started, back in 99 and 97, actually, 98, 99, the beginnings of this industry, but it kind of grew in this area. So Surrey County is pretty much the hometown or home place or the birthplace of this type of structure. Now there's been other structures made out of different, you know, tubing, like round tubes and all that, that's, you know, on the West Coast. But to be square tubing and to go into what we're doing now is different. So it started off, you probably drove by, even where you live, you see little tops and people parked their cars, or you drive by some kind of dealer that sells outdoor equipment or something, you see a little sign that says a price.