William Serrata has been president of the El Paso County Community College District since August 2012 and has served on the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’s El Paso Branch since 2018. He is past chair of the Texas Association of Community Colleges, serves on the Business Advisory Committee and is a member of the Legislative Committee. He discusses the unique, postpandemic challenges community colleges face. 

Sheila Olmstead, a professor specializing in environmental policy at the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University, discusses with Dallas Fed economist Pia Orrenius the competing demands for water in Texas and the challenges a growing economy poses.

The number of Texas cattle are at a multidecade low at a time of strong demand and relatively high consumer prices. Dr. David Anderson, a Texas A&M University professor and extension economist, discusses with Dallas Fed economist Emily Kerr what’s driving the market, making even hamburger pricey. 

Artificial intelligence, electric cars and power-hungry manufacturing are combining to boost power demand in Texas and nationwide. Dallas Fed economists Kunal Patel and Pia Orrenius examine what it will take to ensure that the lights stay on, and burgeoning user demand is met.

Investment, a large labor pool and proximity to the United States have helped propel Mexico’s economic fortunes. Dallas Fed economists Sewon Hur and Pia Orrenius discuss how improving productivity could propel Mexico beyond the ranks of middle-income nations.

Closing the widening federal budget will require tough choices, possibly including new taxes and cuts to entitlement programs, such as Social Security and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. American Enterprise Institute tax expert Alan Viard discusses some options with Dallas Fed economist Pia Orrenius.

Brownsville, long a quiet community in the largely agricultural Lower Rio Grande Valley, confronts a burst of activity from SpaceX launches to new port trade. Texas National Bank President Joe Quiroga, a lifelong area resident and Dallas Fed director, discusses the rapid change with Dallas Fed economist Pia Orrenius.

Dallas Fed economists Jesse Thompson and Pia Orrenius  discuss how the employment profile of Texas increasingly resembles the U.S., while the energy sector ensures that the state remains unique.

Economist Jeffrey Fuhrer, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Boston Fed director of research, discusses The Myth that Made Us, his new book about inequalities in the nation’s economic system. He offers proposals to close the nation’s wealth gap in a discussion with Dallas Fed economist Pia Orrenius.  

University of Chicago Booth School associate professor Michael Weber explains how audiences are most receptive to monetary policy messaging delivered by Fed officials whose ethnic or gender background is similar to theirs. The tendency is also generally observed in other communications contexts, he tells Dallas Fed economist Pia Orrenius.