A Fed Official Goes Hunting for Inflation Clues in the Heartland

On a hot, sunny afternoon in early June, Austan Goolsbee traded a desk in his bookshelf-lined office at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago for a cramped brick booth on a small island in the middle of the Mississippi River.
On the border of Illinois and Iowa, with a black lever in each hand, Goolsbee carefully closed two miter gates at Locks and Dam 15, allowing a chemical barge to sail on to the next part of the river. He was there to tour the facility and meet with local business leaders and farmers, hoping to gain a better understanding of how his region's economy — the most exposed to tariffs among the Fed's 12 districts — is coping with the Trump administration's ever-changing trade policies.

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