If you know anything about democratic values, you know that if there’s anything more important than skill, it’s racial and gender diversity. This is why we ought to celebrate recent reports assuring us that the most diverse Federal Reserve Board in history is on the job, working hard to tame Biden-era inflation.

When Diane Swonk first attended the Federal Reserve’s annual economic conference in Jackson Hole in the late 1990s, there was a happy hour for women who attended the event. It barely filled a single table.

Now, the “Women at Jackson Hole” happy hour draws dozens of female economists and high-level decision-makers, from the United States and overseas.

“I’m just glad that now there’s a line for the ladies’ room,” said Swonk, a longtime Fed watcher who is chief economist for the accounting giant KPMG.

It’s not just at Jackson Hole but also in the Fed’s boardroom where its leadership has become its most diverse ever. There are more female, Black and openly gay officials contributing to the central bank’s interest-rate decisions than at any time in its 109-year history. Many are also far less wealthy than the officials they have replaced.

Over time, economists say, a wider range of voices will deepen the Fed’s perspective as it weighs the consequences of raising or lowering rates. It may also help diversify a profession that historically hasn’t been seen as particularly welcoming to women and minorities.

[Reuters]

These hidden figures will no doubt get inflation under control in no time:

Of course, you can’t have democratic progress without evil white Republican politicians stepping in the way. Trump-endorsed Senate candidate dared to question the cult of diversity in a flippant remark that, if we were more of a democracy, would surely result in a ten year prison sentence for hate speech:

If you find yourself similarly questioning diversity, we encourage you to sit back, close your eyes, think of our democracy and reconsider.

After all, to question diversity is equivalent to an imaginative siege on democracy itself—an insurrection of the heart, mind and spirit.

You don’t want to be known as an imaginative insurrectionist against democracy, do you?

Do you?

Didn’t think so.