31st Annual Automotive Insights Symposium | Welcome Remarks Day Two

RICK MATTOON: So good morning, everyone. Welcome to day two of the 31st annual Automotive Insights Symposium. Once again, I'm Rick Mattoon. I'm the Regional Executive here at the Detroit branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

It's my pleasure to have you all back here today. I think yesterday, we learned an awful lot. I know in the conversations I had during the reception last night, people kept talking about how many interesting points were brought up. And I think that that's going to continue today with the panels we have available.

You know, one of the things that really became clear to me yesterday in the discussions was, again, the notion of-- this notion of the uncertainty facing the industry. And what was particularly, I think, profound is the number of dimensions this uncertainty is going to take.

And so I think it's a time in which paying close attention to the developments in the industry are going to be very important in 2025 and beyond. And so again, I really think this program is right on point in terms of what substance we're trying to bring you.

Today, we're going to turn our attention to three topics. The first is trade, and in particular, the geography of trade and whether that's changing. The second topic is going to look at something near and dear to my heart, which is whether auto affordability and transportation is a barrier to employment.

And the third and our final panel of the day is something that is going to be well worth sticking around for, and it's going to be on supply chains, and particularly the implications that might have for simplifying manufacturing. Our trade panel is going to be moderated by Thomas Klier.

Now I have to take a little bit of a opportunity here on my behalf to say that this is somewhat bittersweet for me. Thomas is going to be retiring from the bank in March. Thomas has been a dear colleague of mine. I'm very lucky.

During much of my career, I had the opportunity to actually co-author some things with Thomas. He's always been a brilliant and talented researcher, someone who has been one of the best colleagues we have within the research department. I also will mention that Thomas actually had some of his work cited in Paul Krugman's Nobel prize address.

I can assure you that nothing I have ever written will ever be cited in any Nobel prize address going forward, and I think that shows you the quality and the innovation that Thomas has brought to his work. As I say, he's going to be leading our trade panel, which brings together a whole group of experts.

Last year, that was much of the focus of what we talked about, and we talked about trade in terms of Mexico, in terms of China, in terms of Canada. I don't think any of those issues have gone away in the preceding year. And again, I think we're all going to be interested in knowing how the geographic footprint maybe is changing, in terms of what these relationships are.

As I say, our second panel is going to look at something that, again, is part of like our Fed mandate, which is like we support maximum employment as one of our mandates, in addition to price stability. And one of the things we're interested in is, are there barriers that inhibit the ability for people to be able to participate fully in the labor market?
 
And in many cases, transportation, along with things like child care, are often identified as those challenges. So what we're going to look at is, is so first of all, why are cars becoming so unaffordable for so many people? Are there other ways in which we can get around this, other modes of transportation, or policies that can be put in place that can enhance transportation options for all populations within the country?

And as I said, our final panel is really going to turn and look at supply chains and again, the implications for that for simplifying manufacturing. Last year, supply chains were much the focus of our program as we talked about the difficulties that the supply chains were having coming out of COVID, that normalization.

Much of that was the theme of Austin's remarks yesterday. And I think that one of the things that's going to be interesting is checking in on where that stands and how supply chains fit into this uncertainty theme that we've had throughout this program. So without further ado, please give a hearty round of applause for Thomas Klier, who's going to come up here and kick off our our next panel.

[APPLAUSE]

THOMAS KLIER: Thanks. Thanks.