Cook, The Dual Mandate in Rural America

At the 2026 Investing in Rural America Conference, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Asheville, North Carolina Thank you, President Barkin, for that kind introduction. And thank you to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and your partners across the Federal Reserve System for organizing this timely and important conference this year and for the past several years. 1 It is a delight and a privilege to be back in North Carolina where I spent the summers and holidays of my childhood. In fact, the summer after the TV series "Roots" aired, my parents packed my sisters and me up in our lime green station wagon, and we traversed much of the state identifying and meeting our relatives and researching our family's ancestry.