The Federal Reserve Bank, founded in
1913, has had more than one hundred members of its Board of
Governors. Forty-four white men governed the nation’s monetary
policy until 1966 when Dr. Andrew Brimmer became the Fed’s
first Black governor. He served until 1974. In 1979 Dr. Emmett Rice
(father of Domestic Policy Council Director and diplomat Dr. Susan
Rice) joined the Fed. In 1997, Dr. Roger Ferguson joined the Board of
Governors, and in 1999, he became Vice-Chair.
There
have been only three Black governors in one hundred and nine years,
all men. Now, President Biden has nominated economist, Dr. Lisa Cook,
to serve on the Fed. She would be the first Black woman and one of
just a handful of women on the Federal Reserve Board. Of course, the
white racists are in attack mode, attacking her qualifications,
written work, and activism.
Few
Black economists have the luxury of simply sitting in an ivory tower
and pontificating. Whether we are studying the workplace and many
Black economists identify as labor economists or agriculture, the
inequities that permeate our nation are in our faces. You don’t
need to study racism to see the glaring inequality that the data
illustrate. African Americans consistently experience twice the
unemployment rates as whites. We have a tenth of the wealth. We’ve
lost our family farms at an alarming rate. Once upon a time, there
were more than a hundred Black-owned banks. Now there are
twenty-three. Many Black economists have commented on these
inequities, whether or not race and racism represent the bulk of
their body of work. Lisa Cook is among those who have commented on
race matters, although most of her work focuses on international
economics, especially the Russian economy.
It
seems that any mention of race puts white folks into a tizzy. So the
ill-informed, ranging from a particularly vapid Tucker Carlson to the
predictably conservative Wall
Street Journal, have been
highly critical of Dr. Cook, if not downright racist. In
mid-February, Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee
boycotted a meeting that would move Cook’s nomination (and that
of others) to the full Senate. It is not clear when the full Senate
will have the opportunity to vote on these nominations.
Most
folks don’t know the Fed from a farmhouse, but anyone spending
money these days must wonder what role the Fed has played in the
skyrocketing prices consumers are facing. Rents in some urban areas
are up by more than 20 percent. Meat prices have increased by a third
in the past year. The average price of pumped gas is up by a third,
and in California, it is common to see prices veering toward $6 a
gallon. And please don’t try to buy a car right now, as both
new and used car prices are rising. It is part of the Fed’s job
to contain inflation and set interest rates. In weeks, they will
likely increase interest rates.
Will
it make a difference if a Black woman is on the Fed? I think so. Even
though Lisa Cook’s work focuses on international banking, she
is acutely aware of the uneven impacts of banking policy on the
underserved, which includes Black folk. Inflation hits everyone, but
those with little disposable income are hit hardest. If chicken
breasts cost $3 a pound instead of $2.50, that’s not a big deal
to a six-figure earner. It hits hard, though, to someone scraping to
make ends meet. Cook can bring some of that perspective to Fed
deliberations.
In
addition to being a solid economist, Lisa Cook is also a champion for
diversity and a role model for many young women. She has actively
encouraged young Black women to consider the economics profession,
which is essential when we realize how scarce Black women are in that
field. Lisa Cook would enrich the Fed. The Senate needs to confirm
her.
Lisa
Cook stands on the shoulders of giants like Brimmer, Rice, and
Ferguson. It is galling that an institution that is more than a
century old is just getting around to including Black women. It is
galling that “qualified” used to be a synonym for white
and male. And yet, it is encouraging that the glass ceiling is
cracking slowly and that Lisa Cook, whether confirmed or not, has
made Black history.
