Biography of Rosalynn Carter
“Do what you can to show you care about others, and you will make our world a better place.”
Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter’s marriage to Jimmy Carter took her from a rural farming community to the White House. Showing the world a new vision of the First Lady, Mrs. Carter was a working partner and trusted advisor to the president, a participant in foreign and domestic affairs, and an astute political strategist. Widely recognized as the nation’s foremost advocate for mental health, she was actively devoted to building a more caring society.
The White House Years
While assuming the traditional demands of presidential wife and official White House hostess, Mrs. Carter worked tirelessly to create what she described as “a more caring society.” She was the first presidential spouse to carry a briefcase to a White House office on a daily basis. As a result of her singular tenacity and southern gentleness, she was dubbed the “steel magnolia.”
Early in 1977, barred by statute from being chair of the newly established President’s Commission on Mental Health, Mrs. Carter became its honorary chair. In this capacity she held hearings across the country, testified before Congress, and spearheaded passage of the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980. She continued her work in the field of mental health throughout her life.
She traveled extensively overseas, promoting both her own projects and the president’s policies. In a history making trip to Latin America in 1977, she represented the U.S. Government and visited with heads of state from seven Latin American countries, sharing her husband’s position on human rights and helping to enhance democracy in our hemisphere. In Geneva, Switzerland, she became the first First Lady to address the World Health Organization.
Drawing from her own experiences as a working woman, wife, and mother, she spent many hours lobbying for support of the Equal Rights Amendment; she mobilized representatives from private voluntary relief organizations, labor, and the corporate world in an appeal that raised tens of millions of dollars for Cambodian refugees; and she brought together 23 leading organizations to develop solutions for problems of the elderly at a White House Roundtable Discussion on Aging. In choosing an unprecedented array of White House entertainment for American leaders and international officials, she showcased American culture, initiating public telecasts of White House performances featuring the world’s finest artists and musicians.
Immunizing children against preventable disease was a special focus of Mrs. Carter’s throughout her entire public service career. As governors’ spouses, Mrs. Carter and Betty Bumpers of Arkansas worked together in their respective states to promote vaccinations. Once President Carter was in office and in response to a measles outbreak, Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Bumpers again joined forces to make vaccinations a routine public health practice. By 1981, 95 percent of children entering school were immunized against measles and other diseases.
Throughout Jimmy Carter’s years in politics, Rosalynn Carter campaigned widely on his behalf and was considered his most fervent and effective supporter. Often lauded for possessing unique political skills, she admitted being more concerned about popularity and winning than her husband, though she noted, “…I have to say that he had the courage to tackle the important issues…”
The Early Years
She was born Eleanor Rosalynn Smith on August 18, 1927, in Plains, Georgia, daughter of Wilburn Edgar Smith, a farmer who also owned and operated the first auto shop in the county, and Frances Allethea Murray, a college graduate and homemaker. As a child, she was shaped by strong religious and family values and an early acceptance of hard work and responsibility.
When her father died of leukemia at age 44, Rosalynn’s mother had to go to work. Thirteen-year-old Rosalynn helped her mother with the housekeeping and caring for her siblings and grandfather. She graduated as valedictorian from Plains High School in 1944 and from Georgia Southwestern College in 1946.
In 1946, she married Jimmy Carter, who had just graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. Mrs. Carter described her years as a Navy wife as a coming of age in which she developed the self-confidence to manage a household with three babies on her own while her husband worked and was often aboard ship.
Three sons were born in different Navy ports: John William “Jack” Carter, July 3, 1947, in Norfolk, Va.; James Earl “Chip” Carter III in Honolulu, Hawaii, on April 12, 1950; and Donnel Jeffrey “Jeff” Carter on August 18, 1952, in New London, Conn. Amy Lynn Carter was born 15 years later on October 19, 1967, in Plains.
After Carter left the Navy and returned home to run the family business upon the death of his father, Rosalynn began working alongside her husband, keeping the books for the farms and the farm supply business. During Carter’s contentious 1962 race for the state Senate, which he won after exposing a stuffed ballot box, she received her first taste of politics.
Though shy and anxious about public speaking, she became fully engaged in subsequent campaigns for his re-election and his bids for governor in 1966 and 1970. She campaigned full time on a separate schedule in the 1976 and 1980 presidential races.
As Georgia’s First Lady, Mrs. Carter led a passionate fight against the stigma of mental illnesses and worked to overhaul the state’s mental health care system. Her obligations in the governor’s mansion also called for entertaining visiting officials and diplomats, serving as liaison to civic groups, and using her influence as a public figure to advance immunizations of children and other charitable causes. She later observed that these experiences prepared her for the White House years.
Loss of Local Newspapers Accelerating, Northwestern University Study Finds
More than half of U.S. counties have no access or very limited access to local news
Analysis shows more than 7% of counties at substantial risk of losing news
Based on the demographics and economics of current news desert counties, Medill’s modeling estimates that 228 counties are at an elevated risk of becoming news deserts in the next five years.
EVANSTON, ILL. – The loss of local newspapers accelerated in 2023 to an average of 2.5 per week, leaving more than 200 counties as “news deserts” and meaning that more than half of all U.S. counties now have limited access to reliable local news and information, researchers at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University have found.
In addition, Medill researchers for the first time used predictive modeling to estimate the number of counties at risk of becoming news deserts. Those models show that another 228 counties are at high risk of losing local news. In creating that “Watch List,” Medill researchers and data scientists applied the characteristics of current news deserts to counties with only one news source.
CMost of the digital-only startups are based in metro areas, exacerbating the divide in America between news-haves and have-nots.
Also new this year, the State of Local News Project, in partnership with Microsoft, generated a “Bright Spots” map showing all local news startups in the U.S. as they’ve appeared over the past five years. The map also highlights 17 local news outlets — both startups and legacy organizations — with promising new business models for the future.
“The significant loss of local news outlets in poorer and underserved communities poses a crisis for our democracy,” said Medill visiting professor Penny Abernathy, a co-author of this year’s report who has been studying local news deserts for more than a decade. “So, it is very important that we identify the places most at risk, while simultaneously understanding what is working in other communities.”
Here are some of the report’s key findings:
- There are 204 counties with no local news outlet. Of the 3,143 counties in the U.S., more than half, or 1,766, have either no local news source or only one remaining outlet, typically a weekly newspaper.
- The loss of local newspapers ticked higher in 2023 to an average of 2.5 per week, up from two per week last year. There were more than 130 confirmed newspaper closings or mergers this past year.
- Since 2005, the U.S. has lost nearly 2,900 newspapers. The nation is on pace to lose one-third of all its newspapers by the end of next year. There are about 6,000 newspapers remaining, the vast majority of which are weeklies.
- The country has lost almost two-thirds of its newspaper journalists, or 43,000, during that same time. Most of those journalists were employed by large metro and regional newspapers.
- There are about 550 digital-only local news sites, many of which launched in the past decade, but they are mostly clustered in metro areas. In the past five years, the number of local digital startups has roughly equaled the number that shuttered.
- Based on the demographics and economics of current news desert counties, Medill’s modeling estimates that 228 counties are at an elevated risk of becoming news deserts in the next five years. Most of those “Watch List” counties are located in high-poverty areas in the South and Midwest, and many serve communities with significant African American, Hispanic and Native American populations.
The predictive modeling analysis was conducted by faculty, researchers and staff of the Medill Local News Initiative and the Spiegel Research Center using demographic, economic and local news data from every county in the U.S.
Facing Financial Ruin as Costs Soar for Elder Care
Margaret Newcomb, 69, a retired French teacher, is desperately trying to protect her retirement savings by caring for her 82-year-old husband, who has severe dementia, at home in Seattle. She used to fear his disease-induced paranoia, but now he’s so frail and confused that he wanders away with no idea of how to find his way home. He gets lost so often that she attaches a tag to his shoelace with her phone number.
Adult Children Discuss the Trials of Caring for Their Aging Parents
The financial and emotional toll of providing and paying for long-term care is wreaking havoc on the lives of millions of Americans. Read about how a few families are navigating the challenges, in their own words.
Feylyn Lewis, 35, sacrificed a promising career as a research director in England to return home to Nashville after her mother had a debilitating stroke. They ran up $15,000 in medical and credit card debt while she took on the role of caretaker.
Sheila Littleton, 30, brought her grandfather with dementia to her family home in Houston, then spent months fruitlessly trying to place him in a nursing home with Medicaid coverage. She eventually abandoned him at a psychiatric hospital to force the system to act.
“That was terrible,” she said. “I had to do it.”
Millions of families are facing such daunting life choices — and potential financial ruin — as the escalating costs of in-home care, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes devour the savings and incomes of older Americans and their relatives.
“People are exposed to the possibility of depleting almost all their wealth,” said Richard Johnson, director of the program on retirement policy at the Urban Institute.
The prospect of dying broke looms as an imminent threat for the boomer generation, which vastly expanded the middle class and looked hopefully toward a comfortable retirement on the backbone of 401(k)s and pensions. Roughly 10,000 of them will turn 65 every day until 2030, expecting to live into their 80s and 90s as the price tag for long-term care explodes, outpacing inflation and reaching a half-trillion dollars a year, according to federal researchers.
The challenges will only grow. By 2050, the population of Americans 65 and older is projected to increase by more than 50%, to 86 million, according to census estimates. The number of people 85 or older will nearly triple to 19 million.
Rose Mula Reprise, Not My Parents’ Church: It’s Saturday Mass and I’m Wearing Slacks and Sneakers! No Hat! Not Even a Lace Square Pinned to My Head!
The church I attend these days isn’t the Roman Catholic Church of my parents — or even of my youth.
No, despite my profound disgust with the pedophile priests horror and the Church’s anti-woman and anti-gay leaning, I haven’t converted to another religion. But if the 20-year-old me were to come back to visit me today, she would be sure I had defected.
Photo: A confessional at the Church of St. Francis Xavier, Manhattan, New York, taken by Kwok-Chi Ng, Wikimedia Commons
If she came to Mass with me, she’d be very confused. First, it’s probably Saturday afternoon — not Sunday morning. What’s with that? That wasn’t an option in her day. And how come I’m wearing slacks and sneakers? Yes, it’s Saturday but shouldn’t I be wearing my Sunday best dress to church? And gasp! No hat! Not even a little lace square bobby-pinned to my head? How disrespectful!
The 20-year-old me would also wonder what happened to the altar rail. It has disappeared, and the altar itself is no longer up against the back wall but is now facing the congregation. What’s more, the priest is speaking English — not Latin! And though said priest is still a he, he is often now assisted by altar girls — not always boys. And shocker of shockers — yesterday’s sonorous organ music is often replaced by rocking guitars. Can it be? The 20-year-old me remembers weddings where the leading lady’s entrance could not be heralded with Here Comes the Bride, which was considered secular and thus banned from the church. Bummer! A wedding without Here Comes the Bride was like lasagna without ricotta cheese.
Also, when I was young, a cousin married a non-Catholic (shameful!), and the ceremony had to be performed in the rectory. Such a “sacrilege” could be permitted only in the priests’ house — not God’s. That it was allowed at all was probably to prevent the couple from seeking a non-Catholic church to marry them. A few years later, however, still another cousin had the gall to fall in love with a Protestant, and they actually were allowed to take their vows inside the church — but only outside the altar rail — not on the altar itself.
Since the altar rail has disappeared, we no longer kneel to receive communion. Instead, we now stand with hands palms up, and the priest or lay minister (yes, an actual lay person — sometimes even a lowly woman!) places the host in our hand, instead of on our tongue, and we transfer it to our mouth. My 20-year-old self would be horrified. It was sacrilegious to touch the host back then; and once it was in our mouth, we were supposed to let it dissolve without letting it touch our teeth. And unlike today we never sipped the consecrated wine from a common chalice. (To tell you the truth, I still don’t do that. I know I should have more faith that God won’t let me catch the cold of the person in front of me who is coughing, but still… It’s bad enough that I now have to shake that person’s hand during the peace-be-to-you exchange). We also had to fast from midnight the night before receiving communion. I remember being in a quandary at Mass on New Year’s Day, which is one of several holy days of obligation. I disliked going to communion because I felt I was advertising the fact that I hadn’t been partying after midnight on New Year’s Eve. I figured it wasn’t anybody’s business that I may have been dateless on the big night.
Our pre-communion fasts were not the only times we were deprived of sustenance. We also had to fast between spartan meals during the forty days of Lent.
As for that New Year’s holy day of obligation, it was … are you ready for this … the Feast of the Circumcision. Fortunately, the church has now renamed this to the Feast of the Holy Family, a much more decorous designation, I feel.
Oh, and I can’t forget another ritual of my youth — weekly confession. Yes, weekly! I was such a goody-goody that I used to have to make up sins to have something to tell the priest. “I disobeyed my mother three times.” No way. I told you — I was a goody-goody. I never disobeyed my mother. And “I lied twice.”
To tell the truth, the whole confession was a lie.
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Fact Sheet: US Justice Department Efforts to Combat Hate Crimes; Preventing and Prosecuting Hate Crimes is a Top Priority for the Justice Department.
Preventing and prosecuting hate crimes is a top priority for the Justice Department. Hate crimes instill fear across communities and undermine our democracy. In one of his first acts, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland issued a directive to the Department to conduct a 30-day expedited internal review to determine how the Department could deploy all the tools at its disposal to counter the recent rise in hate crimes and hate incidents.
On May 27, 2021, following the review’s completion and the passage of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, the Attorney General issued a memorandum announcing immediate steps to deter hate crimes and bias-related incidents, address them when they occur, support victims, and reduce the pernicious effects these incidents have on our society. Since then, the Department has aggressively implemented the Attorney General’s directives to increase resources to combat hate crimes through federal law enforcement action and to enhance training, support and outreach to state and local partners.
Combating Hate by Investigating and Prosecuting Hate Crimes
- Pursuing Hate Crimes Prosecutions: Since January 2021, charged 100 defendants in over 85 cases and secured more than 85 convictions of defendants charged with bias-motivated crimes.
- Elevating Hate Crimes Threat Level: Elevating civil rights violations and hate crimes enforcement for prioritization among the FBI’s 56 field offices.
- Expediting Review of Hate Crimes: Designating the chief of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division to serve as a facilitator for the expedited review of hate crimes.
- Enhancing State and Local Law Enforcement Training: Launching a hate crimes recognition and reporting training aimed at line-level state and local law enforcement officers and holding trainings for state and local law enforcement on assessing and managing hate crime and domestic extremist violence threats. This training is provided for free to state, local, tribal, territorial, and campus law enforcement agencies via the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services technical assistance program: https://cops.usdoj.gov/cri-tac.
Improving Hate Crimes Reporting
- Increasing Hate Crimes Reporting: Launching the United Against Hate program in all 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to help improve the reporting of hate crimes and hate incidents by teaching community members how to identify, report, and help prevent hate crimes and encouraging trust building between law enforcement and communities. The Department has held more than 200 events and over 6,000 people have participated.
- Helping Agencies Report Accurate Hate Crimes Data: Providing funding and free technical support to assist law enforcement agencies transition from the old crime data collection system to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the only way for state and local agencies to submit crime data, including hate crime data, to the FBI. Conducting outreach to police chiefs, law enforcement groups, and mayors to emphasize the importance of accurate hate crime data collection.
- Engaging State and Local Law Enforcement: Facilitating FBI-hosted regional conferences across the country with state and local law enforcement agencies and community organizations regarding federal civil rights and hate crimes laws to encourage reporting, strengthen relationships between law enforcement and local civil rights organizations, and build trust within the diverse communities they serve.
- Expanding Language Access: Designating an inaugural Language Access Coordinator to improve knowledge, use, and expansion of the department’s language resources and adopting an updated Language Access Plan.
- Increasing Language Access for Reporting Hate Crimes: Adding information to the department’s website on reporting hate crimes in 24 languages, including 18 of the most frequently spoken AAPI languages in the United States.
- Conducting an Awareness Campaign: Launching an FBI-led National Anti-Hate Crimes Campaign involving all 56 FBI field offices to encourage reporting. The campaign includes outdoor advertising, billboards, and radio streaming in addition to social media.
Shoring Up Resources to Combat Hate Crimes
- Coordinating Hate Crimes Resources: Designating a Deputy Associate Attorney General as the Department’s Anti-Hate Crimes Resources Coordinator.
- Designating Hate Crimes Coordinators: Designating Assistant U.S. Attorney Civil Rights Coordinators in every U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO).
- Strengthening USAO Access to Online Hate Crimes Enforcement and Prevention Resources: Creating an Online Toolkit for Combating Hate Crimes and Incidents, a one-stop shop providing USAOs with a comprehensive set of online prosecutorial resources. The Toolkit strengthens USAOs’ ability to lead hate crimes prevention efforts, providing them with customizable community outreach materials, including for the United Against Hate program, as well as technical assistance and grant information to share with community and law enforcement stakeholders.
- Conducting and Disseminating Research: Conducting new research and evaluation studies and disseminating findings to improve hate crime prevention efforts; improve reporting of hate crimes and hate incidents; and understand and address the needs of victims of hate crimes and their communities.
- Awarding Grants: Awarding over $70 million in grant funding over the last three years to law enforcement and prosecution agencies, community-based organizations, and civil rights groups to support outreach, investigations, prosecutions, community awareness and preparedness, reporting, hotlines, and victim services; as well as supporting research and program evaluation studies. Examples include:
- The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Program, which supports state, local and Tribal law enforcement and prosecution agencies and their partners in conducting outreach, and investigating and prosecuting hate crimes;
- The Community Based Approaches to Prevent and Address Hate Crimes Program, which supports community-based organizations and civil rights groups in implementing comprehensive approaches to promote community awareness and preparedness, increase victim reporting, strengthen community resiliency, and improve responses to hate crimes;
- The Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act Program, which supports state-run hate crime reporting hotlines and assists jurisdictions’ transition to NIBRS to improve hate crimes data reporting; and
- The Emmett Till Program, which supports law enforcement and prosecutors and their partners in their efforts to investigate and resolve cold-case homicides that involve civil rights violations.
Educating the Public and Law Enforcement on How to Protect Our Communities
- Strengthening the Community Relations Service: Revitalizing the Community Relations Service by, among other things, facilitating Protecting Places of Worship forums to provide interfaith communities with resources and information on securing their places of worship and help faith leaders build relationships with law enforcement.
- Raising Awareness of the Rise in Hate Crimes During COVID-19 Pandemic: Publishing guidance with the Department of Health and Human Services to raise awareness of the rise in hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a surge of hate crimes and hate incidents against Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, and share tips for law enforcement, government officials, and community-based organizations to prevent and respond to hate crimes.
- Combating Juvenile Hate Crimes and Identity-based Bullying: Conducting a multi-prong initiative to prevent and combat youth hate crimes, hate incidents, radicalization of youth by extremist hate groups, and identity-based bullying, including virtual symposiums, a webinar series, literature review, 19 youth roundtable discussions that identified ways to engage and empower youth to combat and prevent hate, and the development of additional resources to be released later this year.
- Clarifying the Use of Byrne JAG grants: Sending guidance to State Administrating Agencies to clarify that Byrne JAG grants can be used to increase patrols and deployments that bolster the security of at-risk nonprofit organizations, including synagogues, churches, mosques, and other places of worship.
More information about the Department’s response to hate crimes is available at https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes.
Women’s Congressional Policy Institute: Relationships between Firearm Violence, Misogyny and Violence Against Women
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Bringing women policymakers together across party lines to advance issues of importance to women and their families. |
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Weekly Legislative Update |
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November 6, 2023 |
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Justice Department Files Statement of Interest in Case on Right to Travel to Access Legal Abortions
The Justice Department filed a statement of interest today (November 9th) in two consolidated lawsuits seeking to protect the right to interstate travel, including the right to travel to another state to obtain an abortion that is legal in the destination state. The statement of interest explains that the Constitution protects the right to travel across state lines and engage in conduct that is lawful where it is performed and that states cannot prevent third parties from assisting others in exercising that right. The statement argues that the Alabama Attorney General’s threatened prosecutions of individuals for providing assistance to people seeking lawful out-of-state abortions are therefore unconstitutional. The cases are Yellowhammer Fund v. Marshall and West Alabama Women’s Center, et al., v. Marshall.
“As I said the day Dobbs was decided, bedrock constitutional principles dictate that women who reside in states that have banned access to comprehensive reproductive care must remain free to seek that care in states where it is legal,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “This filing demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to defending the constitutional right to travel and to protecting reproductive freedom under federal law.”
“The Reproductive Rights Task Force has been scrutinizing state laws and enforcement actions that threaten to infringe on federal protections of reproductive rights, including illegal attempts to prevent interstate travel,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “Today’s filing is just one part of the Justice Department’s ongoing work to use all available tools to safeguard reproductive freedoms protected by the Constitution and federal law.”
“Alabama may not infringe the constitutional right to travel in order to meet its policy goals,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Civil Division will continue to assert the interests of the United States.”
The Department’s statement of interest explains that the right to travel from one state to another is firmly embedded in the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence and the Constitution. It notes that Justice Kavanaugh — one of the five justices who formed the majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — has explained that the question of whether a State may “bar a resident of that State from traveling to another State to obtain an abortion” is “not especially difficult” — “the answer is no based on the constitutional right to interstate travel.” The Department’s filing also explains that the Supreme Court has held that states may not prevent third parties from assisting others in exercising their right to travel. Further, the statement of interest explains that because of these precedents, the Alabama Attorney General may not criminalize third-party assistance for interstate travel, particularly where the sole purpose of those prosecutions is to impede individuals’ exercise of their constitutional rights.
The plaintiffs in these cases are organizations and individuals within Alabama seeking to facilitate individuals’ access to legal, out-of-state abortions. They brought suit in response to the Alabama Attorney General’s argument that he may criminally prosecute individuals within Alabama who assist others in obtaining legal, out-of-state abortions. Specifically, the Alabama Attorney General contends that providing assistance within Alabama to someone seeking an out-of-state abortion constitutes a criminal conspiracy, regardless of whether the abortion is legal in the state where it is performed, as long as the abortion would be illegal if performed within Alabama. Plaintiffs have challenged the Alabama Attorney General’s threatened conspiracy prosecutions on a variety of grounds, including as being inconsistent with the Constitution’s right to travel.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs overturning Roe v. Wade, the Justice Department has worked with commitment and urgency to defend the reproductive freedoms that are protected by federal law. The Reproductive Rights Task Force, led by Associate Attorney General Gupta, consists of senior officials and dedicated staff from across a dozen Department components who are working daily to address complex and widespread threats to reproductive health in the wake of Dobbs. Since the Task Force was formed, one of its core responsibilities has been to assess state and local legislation and enforcement actions that threaten to impair women’s right to seek reproductive care in states where it is legal and to coordinate appropriate federal government responses to those actions, including proactive and defensive legal action where appropriate. Additional information on the work of the Task Force can be found at www.justice.gov/reproductive-rights.
November 1, 2023 Chair Jerome Powell’s Press Conference on Employment and Inflation
PRELIMINARY
Transcript of Chair Jerome Powell’s Press Conference November 1, 2023
CHAIR POWELL. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome. My colleagues and I remain squarely focused on our dual mandate to promote maximum employment and stable prices for the American people. We understand the hardship that high inflation is causing, and we remain strongly committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2 percent goal. Price stability is the responsibility of the Federal Reserve. Without price stability, the economy does not work for anyone. In particular, without price stability, we will not achieve a sustained period of strong labor market conditions that benefit all.
Since early last year, the FOMC has significantly tightened the stance of monetary policy. We have raised our policy interest rate by 5-1/4 percentage points and have continued to reduce our securities holdings at a brisk pace. The stance of policy is restrictive, meaning that tight policy is putting downward pressure on economic activity and inflation, and the full effects of our tightening have yet to be felt. Today, we decided to leave our policy interest rate unchanged and to continue to reduce our securities holdings.
Given how far we have come, along with the uncertainties and risks we face, the Committee is proceeding carefully. We will make decisions about the extent of additional policy firming and how long policy will remain restrictive based on the totality of the incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks. I will have more to say about monetary policy after briefly reviewing economic developments. Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has been expanding at a strong pace, and well above earlier expectations. In the third quarter, real GDP is estimated to have risen at an outsized annual rate of 4.9 percent, boosted by a surge in consumer spending. After picking up somewhat over the summer, activity in the housing sector has flattened out and remains well below levels of a year ago, largely reflecting higher mortgage rates.
Higher interest rates also appear to be weighing on business fixed investment. The labor market remains tight, but supply and demand conditions continue to come into better balance. Over the past three months, payroll job gains averaged 266 thousand jobs per month, a strong pace that is nevertheless below that seen earlier in the year. The unemployment rate remains low, at 3.8 percent. Strong job creation has been accompanied by an increase in the supply of workers: The labor force participation rate has moved up since late last year, particularly for individuals aged 25 to 54 years, and immigration has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. Nominal wage growth has shown some signs of easing, and job vacancies have declined so far this year.
Although the jobs-to-workers gap has narrowed, labor demand still exceeds the supply of available workers. Inflation remains well above our longer-run goal of 2 percent. Total PCE prices rose 3.4 percent over the 12 months ending in September. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core PCE prices rose 3.7 percent. Inflation has moderated since the middle of last year, and readings over the summer were quite favorable. But a few months of good data are only the beginning of what it will take to build confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably toward our goal. The process of getting inflation sustainably down to 2 percent has a long way to go. Despite elevated inflation, longer-term inflation expectations appear to remain well anchored, as reflected in a broad range of surveys of households, businesses, and forecasters, as well as measures from financial markets.
The Fed’s monetary policy actions are guided by our mandate to promote maximum employment and stable prices for the American people. My colleagues and I are acutely aware that high inflation imposes significant hardship as it erodes purchasing power, especially for those least able to meet the higher costs of essentials like food, housing, and transportation. We are highly attentive to the risks that high inflation poses to both sides of our mandate, and we are strongly committed to returning inflation to our 2 percent objective. As I noted earlier, since early last year, we have raised our policy rate by 5-1/4 percentage points, and we have decreased our securities holdings by more than $1 trillion. Our restrictive stance of monetary policy is putting downward pressure on economic activity and inflation.
The Committee decided at today’s meeting to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 5-1/4 to 5-1/2 percent and to continue the process of significantly reducing our securities holdings. We are committed to achieving a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation sustainably down to 2 percent over time, and to keeping policy restrictive until we are confident that inflation is on a path to that objective. We are attentive to recent data showing the resilience of economic growth and demand for labor. Evidence of growth persistently above potential, or that tightness in the labor market is no longer easing, could put further progress on inflation at risk and could warrant further tightening of monetary policy.
Financial conditions have tightened significantly in recent months, driven by higher longer-term bond yields, among other factors. Because persistent changes in financial conditions can have implications for the path of monetary policy, we monitor financial developments closely. In light of the uncertainties and risks, and how far we have come, the Committee is proceeding carefully.
We will continue to make our decisions meeting by meeting, based on the totality of the incoming data and their implications for the outlook for economic activity and inflation as well as the balance of risks. In determining the extent of additional policy firming that may be appropriate to return inflation to 2 percent over time, the Committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments.
We remain committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2 percent goal and to keeping longer-term inflation expectations well anchored. Reducing inflation is likely to require a period of below-potential growth and some softening of labor market conditions. Restoring price stability is essential to set the stage for achieving maximum employment and stable prices over the longer run.
To conclude, we understand that our actions affect communities, families, and businesses across the country. Everything we do is in service to our public mission. We at the Fed will do everything we can to achieve our maximum employment and price stability goals. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
Ferida’s Wolff’s Backyard: Ahh, Autumn
Ahh, Autumn
It’s officially Autumn. The weather traditionally would be cooling down on its way to greet Winter.
But this has been a strange season, weatherwise.
Fewer jackets are being worn than expected and it’s not unusual to see kids still in shorts. Temperatures have been way warmer than average.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane trap the sun’s heat and have been warming Earth’s atmosphere.
It seems like a warmer Fall would alter the timing of when leaves change their color but trees seem to know better. The leaves are glowing with brilliant reds and yellows and starting to fall in huge numbers. I used to like to crunch them when I walked down the street. I still do.
Ahh, Autumn. It remains its beautiful self. Now it’s time to get out the rake and gather the fallen leaves.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
(Copyright) 2023 Ferida Wolff
Ferida Wolff is author of 19 books for children and three essay books for adults. Her essays appear in anthologies, newspapers and magazines. She is a frequent contributor to the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series. Her picture book IS A WORRY WORRYING YOU? coauthored with Harriet May Savitz (Tanglewood Books) is pertinent to our current times.
Her latest book RACHEL’S ROSES is an historical mid-grade novel.
Nichola D. Gutgold – The Most Private Roosevelt Makes a Significant Public Contribution: Ethel Carow Roosevelt Derby
By Nichola D. Gutgold
As the fall beauty surrounds the northeast, a most pleasant and history filled trip is one to Sagamore Hill, in Oyster Bay. It is not just a frozen in time grand home and lovely community, it is a testament to the power of a daughter’s desire to preserve her family’s history.
Ethel Carow Roosevelt Derby, the daughter of Theodore and Edith Roosevelt’s life was focused on civic morality and the preservation of history. She possessed the heart of a public servant and historian, though she never sought or held elected office or paid employment.
President Teddy Roosevelt with family (including Ethel on far right), circa 1903.
Ethel’s devotion to her hometown of Oyster Bay, New York through her quiet, yet important commitment to create a National Historic Site of Sagamore Hill was a significant deed.
Travel throughout the United States and you are likely to encounter many historic homes, grand structures from bygone eras. Most of them have either fallen into states of disrepair or have been reclaimed by new owners and refurbished with all the modern conveniences. Some of these historic treasure-troves have been lovingly preserved and maintained as National Historic Sites.