Anna Paulson, the new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, who previously headed economic research at the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, prefers to observe developments firsthand and determine how to create the best opportunities for people, writes Joseph N. DiStefano for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I like to connect the dots between abstract questions researchers are trying to answer and what’s the reality on the ground,” she said. “What are our financial strengths and weaknesses? What are our risks? We need to understand abstractly, the general lessons, and concretely, what this means for the people.”

The regional Fed operated alongside the region’s large, longstanding Philadelphia banks, and with those banks no longer around, the role of the Fed has also shifted.

“The role of the Fed evolved with the regional economy,” said Paulson. “There have been mergers across the country; we still supervise banks here, and some are complex. And we have to get intelligence from the region and bring it [to the Fed Open Market Committee] to set policy. There are really important national players in the local economy here. We learn a lot doing outreach about them and their customers.”

Read more about Anna Paulson and the role of the Federal Reserve from her vantage point in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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