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Ask A Kansan is a podcast where we're amplifying, connecting and uncovering stories across Kansas.
Every week, Gus and Sydney sit down with the people who actually make this state run — museum directors and ranchers, founders and historians, zookeepers and woodcarvers. From Kansas City to Kinsley, WaKeeney to Wichita, we go where the story is.
You'll leave each episode knowing something you didn't about the state we call home. It's not a history lecture and it's not a business show. It's a real conversation with a Kansan worth knowing.
New episodes weekly. askakansan.com
Ep67
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Kids Freezer Obsession
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[00:00:00]
Sydney Collins: So kid logic of the day. So this will be my son who's just turned eight last week. So he, granted all my kids love frozen things. They love putting stuff in the freezer for no reason whatsoever. I don't know what the fascination is, but water is 10 times better out of the freezer. Like, a bottle of water that's frozen where the tip is only this big and they just have to, like, stick their tongue in and lick it, that's the best thing to them. They're like dogs-
Julie Mindrup: Oh, wow
Sydney Collins: ... apparently, anyway. But anything out of the freezer is 10 out of 10, the best for my kids.
Frozen Fruit Cup Logic
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Sydney Collins: So this morning, we're all getting ready, we're all getting dressed, whatever, and Maverick goes... And Maverick doesn't eat breakfast either. It takes an arm and a leg to get that kid to eat breakfast. And so he goes and gets, um, a fruit cup, and I s- but I see him opening the freezer, and I'm like, "What the heck?" and [00:01:00] I go, "Why did you put the fruit cup in the freezer?" And he goes, "So I can eat it." I'm like, "But it's like a frozen block of ice. How are you gonna eat a frozen block of ice?" "Well, just wait for it to melt."
I'm like, "Then why don't you just get it out of the fridge?" "Well, so I don't waste it." I'm like, "Your logic is not logicking, man, but go for it. Whatever makes you happy."
Julie Mindrup: Wow.
Sydney Collins: That was before my coffee this morning at, at s- like 6:30,
7:00.
Julie Mindrup: He just likes to sit there and just...
and enjoy it really from visual to
to
tasting it.
Sydney Collins: Like, sure.
Julie Mindrup: Watching it melt.
Sydney Collins: 'Cause it's just one of those, like, Dole's, like- peaches in a, in pear juice type of...
Julie Mindrup: That's something I'd give to, like, you know, my dogs. Like, just freeze and-
throw it outside for them to like-
Sydney Collins: It's literally a chunk of ice. I'm like, "Okay, go for, go for it, man," with a kid who has no teeth.
Do Your Kids Do This
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Sydney Collins: He's gotten a couple teeth pulled, and he's in that weird phase of, like, half of them are t- still small, and half of them are now big and I'm like, "I don't know, man." Do [00:02:00] your kids do anything weird like that?
Julie Mindrup: You know, my kids absolutely just put everything in the fridge even though it's supposed to be freezer- friendly, you know? Like ice cream, one time ... ice cream sandwiches- went into the fridge 'cause they don't pay attention. They really don't pay attention when they put away groceries, so they put everything in the fridge. They assume that I buy nothing that belongs in the freezer. So-
Sydney Collins: That checks ...
Julie Mindrup: We have the opposite problem.
Podcast Intro New Co Host
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Julie Mindrup: Welcome to Ask a Kansan ...
Sydney Collins: a podcast where we're amplifying, connecting, and uncovering stories across Kansas. So you may notice something a little different today. Julie, we've talked about Julie a lot. [00:03:00] Um, Gus is not here today. He is out sick, but Julie was kind enough, to come on, AKA we kinda threw her into the, into the snake's den.
No, I'm just kidding. but Julie does have, uh, a banking background, which, uh, actually helps with our topic today. So welcome, Julie. Thank you for sitting in the hot seat.
Julie Mindrup: Yeah. Yep, it was pretty hot and toasty- ... while I was sitting there, for sure.
Meet Jeremy Hill
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Sydney Collins: so today we have an amazing guest, uh, Jeremy Hill from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, I will let Jeremy introduce himself. So without any further ado, here is our conversation with Jeremy Hill Hello, Hello,
Jeremy Hill: Hello.
Sydney Collins: Welcome, welcome.
Jeremy Hill: Yes.
Julie Mindrup: Hi there.
Sydney Collins: So you may see a different face. So Julie is subbing in for Gus today.
Jeremy Hill: All right, Julie.
Sydney Collins: So have you... There we go.
Jeremy Hill: There we go.
Sydney Collins: Perfection. Well, thank you for joining us.
Jeremy Hill: Yeah, thank you for having me.
Um,
Sydney Collins: for our audience, can you introduce yourself for us?
Jeremy Hill: Sure. My name is Jeremy Hill. I'm the regional executive for the Kansas City Federal Reserve.
Sydney Collins: [00:04:00] Perfect. And what is your Kansas background? Born here, raised here?
Jeremy Hill: Well, both sides of my family homesteaded in Kansas, so we have deep roots that way. And I'm the only person in my family where I wasn't born here, but I grew up here.
So elementary school, high school, yeah.
All that fun stuff. Yeah. Cool. ,
Julie Mindrup: I, I have a question.
Sydney Collins: Go for it.
Jeremy Hill: Yeah.
Jeremy Role At The Fed
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Julie Mindrup: Tell us what you do.
Jeremy Hill: Okay.
Julie Mindrup: What, what does your day-to-day look like? I know you are... What's your role?
And you work for Federal Reserve of Kansas City?
Jeremy Hill: Yes.
Julie Mindrup: Okay.
Jeremy Hill: So it's a pretty unique role. It has a meaningful impact. After spending several years in higher education, talking to communities about how to grow, the Federal Reserve came to me to say, "Hey, you already have connections with executives. Can you help us collect insights from what firms are saying is going on in the economy?"
Because you think about the economy, it's so nebulous. It's so hard to really capture what's going on, that we have data, but really the story behind the data, kinda what you guys do, is the important part. So I go, and like I did earlier today, met with [00:05:00] several firms here in Salina and asked them, "What do you see?
How do you explain conditions, employment, inflation, and policies, and how is that impacting you as you try to grow or you're struggling today?" I'll tell those stories back to my president. His name is Jeff Schmidt, and he votes on the Federal Open Market Committee, uh, last year, and he'll have... But he still tells a story.
Has impact on every household, every business in the nation. And then I also use that information to write about the economy for our 10th district, and last month, I actually wrote for the whole nation to tell those stories.
Sydney Collins: Oh, wow.
Julie Mindrup: Wow.
Why Economics Clicked
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Sydney Collins: What made you wanna get into the economy, economic realm?
Jeremy Hill: You know, it's actually funny.
When I was in high school, Topeka High, I had a great econ teacher, and he told everything as a story. And then he said, "Okay, here's the concept." And I said, " There's two things I'm gonna do. I'm never coming back to Kansas, and I'm never gonna be an economist." And what I've learned is you don't ever say never. That I just kept [00:06:00] finding people who could tell stories about these abstract things, and it just captured me of saying, " Wow, how does this really work? How do... What motivates people to grow a business, to grow an economy?" And that's what... It's pretty magical to see how things work under, under the nuts and bolts of how things work.
Sydney Collins: I think if we all had econ teachers that way, we would've not swore as much in high school and college.
Jeremy Hill: It, it do- it does go both ways. Yeah. And I was lucky to have teachers that told the story first and then explained how it worked in supply, demand, marginal costs. All those ar- those abstract things got more real when you heard the story behind it.
Fed Explained Simply
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Sydney Collins: Can you give us the grade school level of what the Federal Reserve does?
Jeremy Hill: Perfect. Well, we have three main functions, and really what people really think about is all this monetary policy. That's the one that people shut down. But we, we set rates that banks bor- borrow, right? That's the monetary policy.
That's [00:07:00] one bucket. At, at the Kansas City Fed, we have another one over here, which is supervision regulation. So within the 10th districts, we have seven states, we go out to the banks and make sure they're managing the bank in a safe and sound way, but also not too safe, 'cause we want them to be risky.
We want entrepreneurs out there.
Jeremy Hill: I have a third bucket, and it's how money moves, right? Okay. That is an important part. Now, we don't create the cash, but it's how the money move. And there's... That part I actually, I knew a little bit, but I've learned a lot more.
There's all these rails of how cash moves or, through this economy. So those are the three ba- basic buckets. Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
How Banks View The Fed
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Julie Mindrup: What do retail bankers think of the Federal Reserve, is my question, after hearing- ... the regulation part, how money moves. What, what do you, what's your reputation with the banks?
Jeremy Hill: So you know what's interesting?
You know, there's a lot of dialogue about the Federal Reserve themselves, and so you have the big board, right? And this is actually, on the government side. We're actually a semi-private organization. We have a public mission, but we're actually [00:08:00] private. And because we're private for the 10th districts, that's why there were all these districts around.
We're here to serve just our 10J. And because of that, we have a fantastic relationship with banks. Right? The banks really like us because we're supporting by getting, processing their cash or helping them out. So it's usually a much more positive, very close-knit relationship, not only them, but also with businesses around here.
Sydney Collins: So- Some fun kind of behind-the-scenes things. I used to work for a bank here in town, but I was in human resources. So I know nothing about banking other than how to hire them. Where, Julie, what was your role? You were a trainer?
Julie Mindrup: Trainer, frontline worker. I stayed in the banking realm for about seven years.
Yeah. Um, so it's just different roles, different spaces in that very-
Jeremy Hill: So what's your view? Go ahead and share.
Julie Mindrup: I, I honestly like regulation. I like rules, boundaries, and direction. Um, I think that sets up an institution to be very well successful, so.
Jeremy Hill: Mm-hmm.
Sydney Collins: Well I don't like rules- ... which is why I did [00:09:00] not do well in HR. Because you're supposed to follow the rules in HR. Sorry, Laura and Jenny.
Which Businesses He Visits
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Sydney Collins: But s- so some other things that, uh, you brought up that I really wanna chat about is, so you say you work with all these businesses and business leaders. Can you kind of give us, not necessarily a deep dive, 'cause I'm sure it's a lot of different people and a lot of different ranges, but, like, who are these f- who are the businesses that you're meeting with?
Like, are they mostly ag? Are they mostly manufacturing? Are they retail? So on and so forth.
Jeremy Hill: No, that, that's a good question. Well, first, I wanna get a cross-section, not only by industry, but also by size of business. Because all of them can have a different conditions. For example,
Wide: right
Jeremy Hill: now, smaller businesses around here are struggling a lot more than the larger businesses who have more ability to manage costs and the supply chains.
S- so size matters. Industries matters. Now, with that said, because of our district, we have [00:10:00] several ag states like Nebraska, and even n- we're an ag state, but also Oklahoma. We have Colorado, Wyoming, and part of New Mexico, So we have tourism. We have all these other industries. We have oil and gas. What we didn't have is an expert to really talk about manufacturing, and out of this whole region- Kansas and Western Missouri is the manufacturing side. So my manufacturing side i- is really the strength that I provide, not only the team within the 10th district, but I also provide in the nation, ' Cause n- it's not only manufacturing. We had advanced manufacturing in Salina. We have advanced manufacturing in all these towns around here and, and down in Wichita, . So understanding how that works is an important one. So I get to bring a strength from that, but I still wanna hear all of 'em because they all have different reactions at different points in cycles.
Backbone Industries In Towns
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Julie Mindrup: On your pre-interview, you had mentioned, um, industries that are the backbone of communities. Can you speak more on that?
Jeremy Hill: Yeah. So, you know, I think it's neat to go to a community, [00:11:00] and there's some here, there's some across the state, where we have institutions that started 100 years ago.
It may have started under flour because that was a big part of our economy, or it may have started because of all the cattle drive or, another one is all of our rail. But over time, that same firm, you know, managed over and over decades to start creating a new product and reacting to the economy. But after that, it has decades of institutional knowledge and connections with communities, and that's really neat to go into a town s- and see, look, it started here, and now this firm's all the way over here, and they're still employing, you know, 50 employees or several hundred employees, and they're providing back to the community.
So it's neat to see how things have evolved and how they're interconnected with the community growing, but also the personality of the community. You'll go to one that's very ag driven and have a, has a culture and perspective, but you go to another one that's manufacturing or, or oil and gas, and you can see the [00:12:00] variations around the state just because of the industry that was there and the people that had to go survive and create value.
K Shaped Household Strain
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Sydney Collins: Another thing that you had mentioned in your, um, preview, this is, this is probably one that we'll get stuck on 'cause I think it pertains to everybody, is, household conditions, um, and how different, households o- on their income level are impacted differently in the economy they are today. Can you speak a little bit to that?
Jeremy Hill: Yeah. So y- I don't like to use wonky words- but this is a wonky one. The concept is the K-shape economy, and so people probably heard it a lot- now to kinda somewhat understand it. But the concept is that there are segments, and they're going in two different directions. Some are doing better and better every single day and, and each year, and there's some segments of the, of our population that are struggling more and more. And that has been happening not only at the national level, but it has been happening across the state. Uh, and so what are the factors? Inflation has [00:13:00] been one of those eroding factors of income for for more than a year for this lowest income group, right? They've had inflation. Each time it comes up, the things that don't typically shift a lot have been shifting a lot.
So think about your car or your insurance. That usually doesn't. Or rent. Those usually, in the last several decades, don't change a lot, and then all of a sudden they captured more of your pocketbook than you expected. And then you look at what's left at the end of the month, 'cause that low-income household- is going for a month to month. They're looking around saying, "Oops, what am I gonna pay now?" And so for the last several years w- we had a, they had an opportunity where not just savings went up, we actually were putting more money in checking, and that checking account went down, then the savings account went down, and then we're seeing credit cards going up, right, for that lowest income household.
So there are households, you add in recently with fuel, we're a very dri- we have to drive cars to get everywhere around the state. That means it's eating into your budget a little bit more because of energy costs. That's [00:14:00] putting a big weight on households. That's been over the last two years, but now have talked to some, uh, firms, not only on the retail side but on the food service side, that are national and statewide, and they're saying there's more of that middle-income household that's struggling more and more every single day, where that fuel cost is also eating into their budget to a point where it's making it more difficult for them.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Julie Mindrup: Definitely understand that.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Julie Mindrup: For sure.
Sydney Collins: Noted.
Where The Data Comes From
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Sydney Collins: Um, Where does all this data come from? We talk about it, and we talk about it or, or it's like, well, yes, we can see it in our day to day, but where, how does all that data come to you guys, and how do you, um, kind of-
Julie Mindrup: Tell the story
Sydney Collins: Tell the story
of it, yeah.
Julie Mindrup: Yeah, 'cause you talk about that's, you tell business leaders' story, the economy story. How do you, how do you do that?
Jeremy Hill: So this actually i- was a hot topic just a few weeks ago as the Federal Reserve was... We have a new chair that came in, and he said, "We need to sit there and rethink about all the [00:15:00] data sources available." So some of people at home have noticed that, you know, there's some concerns around how data's collected at the federal government level, Employment had some big revisions last summer that got national attention. So the way I collect it and the way we, several people on our team, we have a lot of federal data sources, but we have a lot of state data sources. We have industry sources. But for me, my biggest value is not only I'll use all those, but it's also how do I go back and talk to the firm? That's how I collect information, and that gets a lot more rich, colorful stories, particularly when you talk to a large national company here, and they're saying, "Here is what's going on," and they can pull the curtain behind and give you some real detailed data. That's, that's actually the richest information we can get. How are they responding to conditions?
Julie Mindrup: Real time, real value.
Yeah.
Jeremy Hill: When we look at these three buckets of what the Federal Reserve does, this monetary policy is really hard to understand, and there is meaningful value to this [00:16:00] and how that will impact households, so we should talk about that for a second. There is the second bucket, uh, supervision. Most households don't know this, but they w- um, tell you everyone wants. You've watched the movies in the past where the bank runs. You don't want that, so that- that is an important factor. You wanna make sure your dollar is remaining safe, but you also want that next Starbucks or the next local brew co- coffee- even better, your banker is the one that's helping build that entrepreneur activity.
Money Museum And Cash Vault
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Jeremy Hill: The one that is really surprising that most people don't really understand is how money moves. People realize, yes, we process checks, we process cash. You could actually come up to the Kansas City Federal Reserve. We have a money museum. You could see the history of, of the coin over time.
Sydney Collins: Oh, really?
Jeremy Hill: Yeah, this is really cool.
Sydney Collins: It's minus the penny. Just kidding.
Jeremy Hill: Well, the penny is still there. And I could tell you a story how the penny has changed over time, how it fit within the market or not. And you could go around the corner, and you can actually see us processing cash. There's a window to the vault.
You can see the [00:17:00] cash sitting back there, and you can watch us shredding cash, and you can even walk out of the building with-
Julie Mindrup: With a bag
Jeremy Hill: ... shredded cash.
Sydney Collins: Really?
Jeremy Hill: Yep, they have. And actually, I'll give you, we have some shredded cash in the car if you wanna-
Sydney Collins: No way.
Julie Mindrup: That's exciting. I've always seen-
Sydney Collins: We could put- A little pile on the shelf.
Julie Mindrup: Yeah. I've seen people come to work when I was working in the banking with those bags of cash. I'm like, "Hey, how come we don't get a staff field trip to this place even though we work in the bank?"
Jeremy Hill: Well, I, I, I, I think everyone should come up.
It's, it's an open museum. Doesn't cost anything, and the history of the money, which came from, uh, Truman, His Secretary of Treasury collected all these coins, and now you can have this entire history.
And there's some collectibles there that are quite interesting in how it's changed. You think, uh, you look down at your coin and i- is it- is it valuable or not? But there's actually some neat history and points of time when we had to change the whole structure of it. And you get to see that over time.
It's neat. It's, it's a little bit neater for that, for, than you think it is. And I, I know some people that can do the tours. [00:18:00]
Sydney Collins: Ooh.
Jeremy Hill: For fun.
Sydney Collins: I, uh-
Jeremy Hill: Kids and all.
Sydney Collins: I always think of, there's a movie, I don't remember what it is, but the gal... It's, like, three moms and they all work for the Federal Reserve, but instead of shredding or burning the money, they, like, stuff it in their uniforms and they-
Julie Mindrup: Ooh, I can't remember that.
Sydney Collins: There's a movie. But anyway.
Jeremy Hill: Hmm.
Why Money Gets Shredded
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Sydney Collins: So what is the purpose of shredding the money?
Jeremy Hill: So when banks bring the cash back, we have to process it.
And then it goes through this machine. If you can see the machine doing it. It's checking for several things. Over time, the life of a bill, of, let's say a dollar bill or a hundred dollar bill, it gets worn out, or it gets torn up. So at some points it just needs to be removed just 'cause it's getting worn and, and old. As soon as it goes through the machine and checks it's a, a legitimate bill- it goes back and credits that bank so they get credit. It went through. Uh, but if it needs to be so- it's soiled, too poor to be back in the circulation, it gets shredded up in there, So that- that's an important part of it.
Counterfeits And Secret Service
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Jeremy Hill: We're also checking for counterfeits and many other factors. [00:19:00] That's the next question. And there's a whole process of how it goes through to, to find and, and, uh, make sure we have the, keeping the system sound. If we do find counterfeits, the first thing that happens, it goes back to the bank. It's, it's- we do not take the, take it. It goes back to them.
And-
Well, the, the bill gets processed ...
Sydney Collins: the bill gets processed,
Jeremy Hill: But the, the, the cost goes back to them- for not making sure that it is a sound bill. So.
'Cause it's still technically the Secret Service that deals with all the counterfeit.
Yes? No?
I always thought that. Okay. That is a true fact. I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you this now, government and history class, the only reason I passed it is 'cause I sat next to Sarah Parks and Sarah Parks got straight As. So shout out to Sarah.
Back To The Third Bucket
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Sydney Collins: tell us more about the third bucket.
Jeremy Hill: This is the one that we, you, you feel like you get lost a little bit, but is super important and it's gonna be impactful for all households.
Fed Mandate Explained
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Jeremy Hill: When the Federal Reserve, this open market committee, goes and thinks about the economy, 'cause we're looking at a couple things.
We are, we are told that we're supposed to have a full employment, and a [00:20:00] stable economy. And full employment, we're, we're still at full employment, although there's some employment issues. The stable economy part, we interpret as low inflation, around 2%, and we've been above that, We just talked about how that is impacting households today.
Rates Buyers vs Savers
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Jeremy Hill: So if the Federal Reserve looks at this market and looks at the rate that they can lend to banks- And says, "Ooh, we need to pull, we need to make it more restrictive." We can increase rates, make it more restrictive, but that'll slow demand too. Or we can be more accommodative at lower rates.
Either way, it's gonna hurt someone and it's gonna help someone. Just think about the buyers and the savers. Those people who are going to buy a home, increasing rates is gonna make it harder on them. So we realize it's always gonna be a problem if we increase rates. However, if we increase rates, it's gonna hurt the savers. So generationally, you think older people and younger people are kind of the two sides of this coin. That makes it easier to, to process. But that's an, a very important part, and one that is critical today when inflation [00:21:00] has remained much higher than our, our, our rate of 2% that we want
Kansas Bootstrap Spirit
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Sydney Collins: I'm gonna switch gears here.
As you travel with your, um, job, do you, do you travel through all the states for the K- KC, or do you just travel within Kansas?
Jeremy Hill: My primary role is through Kansas and Western Missouri which is that district. But i- there's other places I will go and talk about conditions, but it is going to each community, those businesses there.
Sydney Collins: What's the one thing that really stands out as you've traveled to all these places f- um, that's kind of like, "Yes, I'm in Kansas"? Like, it's like that Kansas feel as you travel. Has there been anything that, like, sticks out through in all these different cities that they all have something in common maybe?
Jeremy Hill: So here's something that people might not think about, but it- even today, when I went and talked to a firm in, in Salina, you know, the amount of time that you'll go to a firm where you hear this bootstrap [00:22:00] kind of mentality where, uh, " We started as a bootstrap. We had to create this ourselves. We just... You know, it, it may be a little illegal what we first started doing, but now here's where we're at today." But you still have it, you still have those same stories today, where there is a firm that says, "Hey, uh, my supplier can't do it anymore. I'm just gonna figure out how to solve it." So you know, town by town, business by business, there's still a lot of that, "I've gotta survive. I wanna do the best I can. I wanna make a good quality product, too." There's a lot of that. But it's, "I'm gonna do it myself. I don't need someone else to come show me to do this. I can just do it." That's a part of the entrepreneurial history of the state, too, so.
Inside the Fed Culture
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Sydney Collins: What's the biggest thing that you've learned so far in this position that you did not expect when you first started?
Jeremy Hill: It's, it's quite interesting on how neutral everyone is at the Federal Reserve. They h- they're very mission-driven. Like, they wanna accomplish something.
And, [00:23:00] you know, it, it's, it's through the DNA of trying to, how do we accomplish the goal of getting to something? And it's just, doesn't matter what you feel, it's like, what is the data? What are the facts? How do we interpret what's going on? that was quite neat to see in an environment where you don't see that.
Even when I was at a university, there still is people's perception kind of clouded, and you would purposely make a d- a decision that was motivated another way. But to see that clear direction, this is the only way we can go.
And coming around that mission was kind of neat. And that's a little bit more wonky than you wanted.
No, that- But that was really neat to see, that they had-
Sydney Collins: Well, well, you don't really think of the Federal Reserve as being a mission-driven, like, place. Like, you think of it- as, like, more of, like, oh, it's the government taking our money again. Like, that's, which is not true. Don't quote me on all that. So, uh, I, I really appreciate your answer.
Jeremy Hill: We are act- so again, we're ac-
Sydney Collins: That's You're not-
How the Fed Funds Itself
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Jeremy Hill: We're actually private- ... private ... uh, with a public mission. And some people don't know how the cash works.
We don't get money from [00:24:00] Congress.
The Congress is not paying us to do what we do. So we do have services. See, I'm, I'm glad you had that little look there.
Sydney Collins: See? Alright. Hold on.
Jeremy Hill: We have services. We go and provide services. That's the supervision regulation. We, we actually have services on accounts, on how to move money, and so we make money through that. And then we have, we're holding all the assets, And the assets, which is the balance sheet, also make money over time, the Treasuries that we're holding. And so that is what fuels the private side of the Federal Reserve. So we're not a. What people say is a big burden on society. Now, is there a burden?
If we're more efficient, that's probably better for the overall economy. But it is, we're doing it through services and how we manage what we do.
[00:25:00]
Kansas Roots and Career Path
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Julie Mindrup: Let's get into a little bit of how you landed in Kansas. And I know on your pre-interview, we're gonna go back to that, you had said that you had some deep roots here.
Jeremy Hill: So family homesteaded on both sides. One's down in Plains, Kansas. That's where m- my, through my dad and his mother family came through there. And we still have, uh, you look at, there's names of buildings in the family names all the way down Southwest Kansas. And then my mom's side of the family is up in Hill City, which is not related to Hill-
but it is Hill City, and we still have land over there. So, uh, the two met at K-State, and then that created the roots that way, so.
Sydney Collins: Where'd you go to school at?
Jeremy Hill: Uh, so I was in Topeka. So elementary school and Topeka High for high school. [00:26:00] Yep. And then I, remember I said I was gonna leave and never come back.
I actually went to Georgia 'cause it was free. So clearly I was gonna, in my roots, to be an economist. Go for the free education.
Uh, and then I kept moving up, and was ready for a director role, and the position at Wichita State opened up. And I was like, "I already know Kansas. This is great."
This, uh, was a good move.
So.
Sydney Collins: And Kansas State, that was with the economic development at Kansas State, or what do you, would you say-
Jeremy Hill: Oh, my
parents met at Kansas State ...
Sydney Collins: Well, I'm, you said from Georgia, you said a position opened up at Kansas State.
Jeremy Hill: At Wichita State.
Sydney Collins: Oh, Wichita State. Sorry.
Jeremy Hill: Yes.
Shockers.
Sydney Collins: At Wichita State.
Jeremy Hill: Yes.
Sydney Collins: was that with the, um, economic development through Wichita State, or-
what was that?
Jeremy Hill: So I came back and ran a center for economic development business research. So there would be, uh, quite a few people around the state would know me from that, 'cause at, when I was there, I would do, uh, quoted heavily in media all across Kansas, talking about economic conditions.
So [00:27:00] when we had a, a special model that we would, evaluate every project- uh, most every project in Wichita, but many projects around the state, when they were trying to give incentives, we would do the analysis. How does it impact city, state, schools, districts, all the way through? And we'd do all kinds of analysis.
So because of that, anything related to the economy, I would be the go-to person to answer those. So a lot of people might recognize just me, just 'cause I was in the media quite a bit.
Economics as Art
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Julie Mindrup: Yeah, you speak so passionately about the economic and the- Federal Reserve. What's your passion with it? Why are you passionate about it? Y-
Jeremy Hill: You know, I think it's exciting my, you would think because it's economics, it's all math. And math has two sides. It, it, or economics has two sides. It's a heavy math, but it's actually a lot of art. And I really was a big art person when I was in high school.
And I like the abstract. I like how these really complex things go together. And so, so why do I like it? It's trying to sit there and piece together these things to [00:28:00] give this bigger view and a direction of how things are coming together or moving in a direction. I think it's very, it's much more art than you really think.
It's, it's, you have to see this very abstract thing that is nebulous, that people can't really quite put the finger on, but they might say, "I know something's happened, and I don't, just can't articulate it." I like to do that.
Julie Mindrup: I, I would not put art and economics in the same- sentence than you did, so, and you do it very well
so thank you for that. That makes it more, um, engaging for me, as someone who needs it dumbed down a little bit to understand how it works. So.
Kansas Economy Snapshot
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Jeremy Hill: Do you want me to give you a couple tips on what's going on in our economy versus the rest of the nation?
Julie Mindrup: Go for it. Yes.
Jeremy Hill: After, goodness, I moved to Kansas in 2009, and I feel-
Sydney Collins: Oh
Jeremy Hill: part of this problem was my fault of the Kansas economy not doing so well for quite a while. Uh, I feel personally re- responsible for that. But I am excited to share that I looked at our GDP number for the first quarter of this year, and Kansas is growing s- much [00:29:00] faster than the nation right now. We are ramping up, and that ramp up is in the manufacturing side. Now- Food side, we kind of hit a peak a while ago, actually mostly during COVID. We, post-COVID, our food production has kind of hit a peak. Some of them are weakening, but at a top level. but our durable side, think about aerospace and machinery and fabricated- metals, which we have all across the state, they are all ramping up now, trying to find labor, and you can see that in the GDP numbers.
Because of that, you go to hear stories around communities around here that are saying, "Yes, we can feel more wage pressure coming on and wages coming up. People are trying to find more labor," which is different than the rest of the nation, which has been pretty flat, not growing by a lot, just growing slowly.
We're starting to speed up lately. So that's, that's kind of a neat thing after quite a long time of really slow growth in Kansas. The other industries, ag, as you could imagine, is struggling today. Energy is, is [00:30:00] e- uh, eroding a lot of the, the margins, and it will probably do that for this next year.
It's gonna be really tough on our ag community. Our oil community, which we have, we're an energy state, losing our energy status, they're struggling, too, You'd think this would be the time to go and drill. It's just not the time, 'cause they're worried about the barrel of oil has to be at a price so they can make a profit.
Well, now, there's still so much production of oil that the... and if we go into recession, they don't see that. And so for them to go and drill, they have, have to have a long life to have that drill to keep pumping, or they pump it at a loss. So they're looking at this market saying, "Well, we're not gonna produce a lot."
So the three big segments, which is ag and oil, both not doing great, but the manufacturing side is doing really well, and you can see that in restaurants are picking up a little bit more around the state.
How Manufacturers Adapt
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Julie Mindrup: How are business leaders pivoting with that?
Jeremy Hill: So when I talk to manufacturers, they're looking at this saying, "Hey, this last year they held [00:31:00] back making capital investments.
They held back for quite a bit, but now all this demand is there." It is how, how do I be very careful? 'Cause the word we've heard this last year is uncertainty. There's still uncertainty, it's just different today, and they're, "How do I manage that risk today?" So it is, "I wanna move forward. I see this demand.
As we're still limited labor in our market, how do I try to piece these things together?" So it's a lot of additional very careful investment that they're looking at in the broader economy to get us to move forward.
Jackson Hole Symposium Story
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Julie Mindrup: The Jackson Hole Economic Symposium that is held every year, how does that impact the, um, economy, the world? ' Cause it, it does look like, um, there's several different countries that attend this symposium.
Jeremy Hill: Jackson Hole is a neat story that Kansas City has led that has a profound impact on the global economy. And it has all to do with fly-fishing. So the chair at the time [00:32:00] wanted... loves fly-fishing, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming is part of our district, and so they did an event in Jackson Hole, Wyoming to attract the chair at the time. But the event itself is all about broad monetary policy at, at a Federal Reserve level.
So we bring, uh, central bank leaders all across the world that comes to this. It has this unique feeling because when you go there, it's a very limited space. There's not a lot of technology. You're there to have a conversation, a discussion about broad banking monetary policy dec- dec- decisions. And so every year they bring up a topic.
They go... We go out and find key leaders, usually from universities, to come and write a paper, then to present, but you have to be engaged in it, and you have all these leaders across the world that will come to have this discussion. Very, uh, it is a very egghead, very thought-provoking kind of event, They're getting very detailed in the weeds of how [00:33:00] broad economies work, and it's, and Kansas City Fed is, leads this in the global economy.
Julie Mindrup: Fascinating. It did say you guys host it every year. So I wondered what impact and how big it is, but having so many different leaders from different countries, um, come and talk to each other about the economy is, is great.
It's a great thing. Thanks for sharing that. I was- Absolutely ... completely curious about what that was.
Where to Learn More
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Sydney Collins: Well, um, If our audience wants to learn more, where do they go?
Jeremy Hill: To learn more about the Federal Reserve, you can go to the Kansas City Federal Reserve- Federal Reserve
website. Uh, and there's other sources around the state as well about the economy that, uh, is important for every household. It's good to know what's going on to know how to manage.
Sydney Collins: Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
Jeremy Hill: Sure.
Sydney Collins: We appreciate it.
[00:34:00]
Post Interview Takeaways
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Sydney Collins: Well, thank you for joining us, uh, for that conversation with Jeremy. One thing I didn't expect was how he relates storytelling to, well, money.
Julie Mindrup: That and art.
Sydney Collins: And economics. Um, that's never something that I would thought to bring to it. what was kinda your insights?
Julie Mindrup: Well, you know, art and economics, I think him, um, kind of relating that to you- each other for how he engages and relates with, um, the economic world and how to tell that story was pretty interesting. Uh, he seems very passionate about, uh, making sure the world knows what's going on with our economics, so.
Kansas Penny Pinchers Game
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Sydney Collins: Well, that's gonna lead us into our segment today. We're gonna s- try staying on the money path, but we're gonna do a little different. It's, uh, [00:35:00] Kansas Penny Pinchers We kinda talked about kinda family economics, so I thought this was kinda fitting. So I'm gonna granted I have not, read this whole list, it'll be kind of a surprise for me too. But we're gonna go, um, back and forth, and I'm just going to do a line, and we're just gonna give our thoughts. So everyday savings. Uh, what's one thing you'll never pay full price for?
Julie Mindrup: Oh, clothes.
Sydney Collins: Same.
Clothes.
Julie Mindrup: Clothes and
Sydney Collins: That or probably, like, really expensive meat, like a, like a big, I don't know, pot roast or something like that. Oh, If they're on sale at Dillon's I'll get one, but I will never pay full price for one.
Julie Mindrup: Or used cars.
Sydney Collins: Oh, Cars. Never pay, nope. What's your favorite money-saving habit?
Julie Mindrup: I think that roundup feature that some bank accounts have. They just round up to the nearest change and drop it into a savings.
Sydney Collins: Drop it in savings.
I do that too, yep. I also [00:36:00] have an app called Fetch where you scan receipts and you get points, and you can turn them into gift cards and stuff, but you can like hook up your Walmart and Sam's Club and all that to it where it digitally checks it, and you can s- like, all the e- all the u- the receipts that go to your email, it'll check and-
Julie Mindrup: Oh, wow.
Does it give you any interest? Does, does it give you anything on interest, or just straight
out?
Sydney Collins: It's just so you get so many points, and then you c- um, uh, per... It's like 25 points per receipt, or if you buy certain products it's like 500 points here or 1,000 points there, depending on what products you, um, or like the, the thing that day or whatever.
Julie Mindrup: Ah.
Sydney Collins: And then those turn into gift cards. So we, I, we usually do either Amazon or AMC or things we do.
Julie Mindrup: That's super useful- with, with kids around.
Sydney Collins: I've bought a lot of, um, Madeline's dance tights just from using Fetch. Fetch.
Fetch.
Julie Mindrup: Shout out to Fetch.
Sydney Collins: Shout out to Fetch. I love Fetch. What is something people spend too much money on?
Julie Mindrup: Hmm.
[00:37:00] Food. Food. I do think food.
Sydney Collins: I would say probably personal care products.
Julie Mindrup: Yeah, my girls have a problem. They have like specific brands- and, they have like, you know, they don't like any products that's been tested on animals or anything like that, super organic, you know?
Sydney Collins: They would never survive- in the 2000s. They would not.
Julie Mindrup: So, uh, those are heavy expenses in
our house.
Sydney Collins: Do you know how much body glitter we have consumed in our lives in the early 2000s? For sure. For sure. That was definitely all probably animal tested. What's one purchase that's worth spending extra money on?
Julie Mindrup: Hmm.
Sydney Collins: I would probably say, and depending, some appliances.
Julie Mindrup: Oh that's a good one.
Sydney Collins: Some appliances are worth buying brand new 'cause then you get all the warranties and yada, yada, yada.
Julie Mindrup: I would say hygiene stuff. Like, there ... I like a certain toothpaste and body wash.
Sydney Collins: Yep, that's fair.
Julie Mindrup: Hygiene stuff. Um, some of the cheaper ones kind [00:38:00] of make you have to go buy more moisturizer or like, you know, it just keeps continuing the cost to keep- yourself comfortable.
Sydney Collins: What did your parents do to stretch a dollar?
Julie Mindrup: Oh my gosh. So I was raised with three brothers, and so I'm the only one that can't get hand-me-downs. So they would go to garage sales and buy- all my shoes, all my clothes, because I couldn't have hand-me-downs. Um, so it took a very long time for them to actually take me to a store and buy me some new clothes, some new clothes that no one has worn.
Sydney Collins: I don't know if my... Uh, well, my mom still sort of does, uh, reuses plastic bags, like Ziploc bags.
Julie Mindrup: Oh my
gosh.
Sydney Collins: She'll rinse them out. She, she's gotten a lot better. If it's only had, like, maybe some grapes or something in them or s- like, something that's not, like, she has to physically, like, swash it, like meat or anything like that, it used to be really bad. We used to recycle all of them. she would [00:39:00] scrub them.
It got to the point where my, grandpa made special, like, hangers, not hangers, but, like, they're, they look like little birdhouses on, on s- like skewers that she could put the bags on upside down so they'd dry. My grandmother had them, too. She got this trait from my grandmother.
Julie Mindrup: Sydney, I'm so guilty of that today. So I see where your mom's coming
from.
Sydney Collins: I do not. , This is kind of the same thing. It might be, have a different answer. What household item did your family refuse to throw away?
Julie Mindrup: Tupperware Oh, bro, just bad Tupperware. I mean, things that are just, they would be burnt in the microwave or don't have lids. They, they just keep them.
Sydney Collins: Just keep them.
My grandmother, um, used to recycle, uh, tinfoil. Oh. Yep. So every once in a while we will send her pictures of us throwing away [00:40:00] foil. Oh, have you ever driven across town to save 10 cents a gallon on gas?
Julie Mindrup: Yes. Yes. I have. So we used to go to the Jump Mart, the gas station on- Jump Start ... Jump Start.
Sydney Collins: Yep.
Julie Mindrup: Um, till we noticed that that g- that fuel burns pretty quick. So then we just go to Sam's now 'cause they have the best deal and the best gas.
Sydney Collins: Well, there you go.
Wrap Up and Next Month
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Sydney Collins: So there's some fun penny... Actually, tell us what your favorite way to spe- s- either spend money or save money, probably s- save money, Tanner's lifting up his camera. I don't know if that's saving money or spending money. Oh, s- he loves to spend money on camera equipment. Um, but, uh, we also wanna make sure everyone knows that, um, August is the start of education month, so be sure to stick around for that.
We are interviewing different educators, um, throughout Kansas at different levels. so please stick around for that. Uh, make sure [00:41:00] to like and subscribe. Um, leave a review from wherever you're, uh, listening from or watching from. also make sure to go to Ask A Kansan website, sign up for the Curious Kansan newsletter, um, and check out our merch.
Did I forget anything?
Julie Mindrup: I don't think so. I think you hit it all.
Sydney Collins: I try. I do my best.