Foreword

By Janet Yellen
President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

It is my pleasure to introduce the Community Development Investment Review, a new journal dedicated to the emerging field of community development investing. Our goal with this publication, like that of our Center for Community Development Investments, is to seek new ways to increase the flow of capital to low- and moderate-income communities. The Review, to be published three times a year, will bring together experts to debate new approaches, share knowledge, and promote effective public policy.

You may know the Federal Reserve System’s mission is to implement sound monetary policy that ensures both price stability and maximum employment. Some pockets of persistent unemployment and poverty, however, may be beyond the reach of macroecomic levers. We have created the Center and this publication to explore new approaches that ensure all segments of the economy, including low-income areas, enjoy the benefits of our shared economic growth.

This issue will focus on the New Markets Tax Credit program, which was enacted in 2000 to increase the flow of capital to communities that had been left out of the tremendous economic growth of the nation’s longest economic expansion. Now, five years later, we believe it is an appropriate time to see how the program is working.

We hope you enjoy this inaugural issue of the Review, and that you will share your ideas with us for advancing the community development investment field.