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‘I don’t do what Wall Street wants,’ Fed’s Bostic says, touting job creation

In ‘Axios on HBO’ interview, Rafael Bostic says jobs are key to growing assets and the economy

Raphael Bostic, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, speaks in February 2020.

Bloomberg News

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said in an interview Sunday that the Fed’s main focus now is on jobs, and disputed the assumption that the Fed just does what Wall Street wants.

“I don’t do what Wall Street wants. I do what’s best for the economy. If Wall Street has an investment in the economy and the economy grows and they do better, so be it.”

— Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic

In an interview that aired on “Axios on HBO,” Bostic said the Fed is trying to create a “bridge” to get every business and family in America to the other side of the pandemic “with as little damage as possible.”

To those ends, he said his top priority is to “get as many people a job as possible.”

“If you don’t have a job, there’s no way you’re going to get to assets. I want our institutions and our policies to work in a way that many more people get jobs than have historically because then they can actually start to build those assets,” Bostic said.

“For us to succeed in the jobs side, there’s also going to be success on the wealth side. You can’t get one without the other.”

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