We are Fed Up!
The Federal Reserve has tremendous influence over our economy. Although our communities continue to suffer through a weak recovery and economic inequality keeps growing, corporate and financial interests are demanding that the Fed put the brakes on growth so wages don’t rise. There is a real danger that in early 2015, the Fed will cut the legs out from the recovery before the economy reaches full acceleration, costing our communities millions of jobs and workers tens of billions in wages.
But for the first time in recent memory, community organizations, unions, and consumer advocates are mobilizing around the Federal Reserve for a national economic policy that prioritizes full employment and rising wages.
Organized by the Center for Popular Democracy, over 70 non-profits, community based organizations, and unions representing millions of people from every region of the United States have
recently called upon the Federal Reserve to reject recent efforts to raise interest rates and to instead adopt all the policies necessary to rapidly reach a full employment economy.
Janet Yellen, the Chair of the Fed, gets it: she knows that the economy remains too weak, with stagnant wages and too much un- and underemployment . But Yellen works with a group of 18 other Fed officials who together make the decision to set interest rates, and now a growing number of them are flexing their muscle and claiming the economy has fully recovered to justify raising interest rates and slamming the brakes on the economy. Those bankers refuse to see how bad the economy still is for most of us.
That’s why our coalition has come together: the Fed needs to hear our voices. The Fed’s job is too important for us to let bankers and financial interests dominate the conversation. The Fed needs to know, it’s not just the rich who are watching them, but now, we are too.
And we’ve already started to be heard. On August 21, 2014, for the first time in memory, unemployed and low-wage workers had face-to-face engagement with the nation's most powerful economic decision-makers at the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole. A group of 10 activists -- brought together by the Center for Popular Democracy and our core partners around the country -- shared our experiences in the economy as unemployed, underemployed, overworked, and underpaid workers in the economy. We directly challenged the economic recovery narrative that those who want to raise interest rates were trying to push.
Our team had a big impact directly on some of the most influential policy makers in the Federal Reserve. Our team met with one of the leading voices calling for an interest rate hike, Esther George, the President of the Kansas City Fed for two hours, we voiced our concerns with Stanley Fischer, the Vice-Chair of the Federal Reserve, and Janet Yellen, the Fed Chair, publicly agreed to meet with us.
Our action at Jackson Hole was only the beginning of a national conversation on monetary policy our coalition will demand. Our broader agenda is to advocate with the Federal Reserve to build an economy that works for all of us. The millions of people represented in our campaign call on the Fed to adopt pro-worker policies for the rest of us: keep interest rates low, give the economy a fair chance to recover, and prioritize full employment and rising wages.
The millions of people represented in our campaign call on the Fed to adopt pro-worker policies for the rest of us: keep interest rates low, give the economy a fair chance to recover, and prioritize full employment and rising wages.
