Beth Hammack may be one of the most powerful and least-known people ever to sign a Tony Packo’s hot dog bun.

As president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Ms. Hammack and her team act as monetary captains and economic forecasters for Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia.

In a visit Monday to Packo’s in East Toledo, she added her name to the roll of more than 800 people who have participated in the time-honored bun-signing tradition that was inaugurated by actor Burt Reynolds in 1972.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland is one of 12 regional reserve banks that, along with the board of governors in Washington, make up the federal reserve system. It is tasked with helping to set monetary policy, overseeing financial institutions, and providing payment services to banks.

Ms. Hammack establishes the Cleveland bank’s short and long-term objectives and its strategic direction. 

She has also been a voting member of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee, the body that sets the federal funds rate, which is the rate of interest banks charge each other for overnight lending. This rate is closely tied to, but is not the same as, the prime rate, which is the interest rate banks charge their most credit-worthy customers.

The federal funds rate is currently 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent, while the prime rate is 7.5 percent.

In December, Ms. Hammack was the sole dissenter when the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee voted to cut the federal funds rate by 0.25 percent. She argued that reducing the inflation rate to 2 percent was more important than establishing a less-restrictive monetary policy. She acknowledged in a written statement, however, that her vote on that issue was a close call.

“Monetary policy is a difficult thing to do,” she said on Monday before sitting down at a Tony Packo’s table with a Sharpie in hand. “It’s a complicated science. I don’t think you’re ever proven right or proven wrong until years and years afterwards when you look at it through a broader lens.

“I feel proud of the decisions I made. I was particularly worried about inflation, how persistent inflation has been, and its impact on our low and moderate-income families. We’re still seeing some evidence of that today, though it’s coming down and we’re making some good progress on that.”

Jimmy Harmon, Tony Packo’s CEO, is on the Federal Reserve’s Business Advisory Council for Northwest Ohio.

“When I heard that Ms. Hammack was coming to town, I said ‘This is a big deal. We ought to do a bun signing,’” he said.

The advisory council gets together for a few hours each quarter to discuss the economic issues that affect the region.

Mr. Harmon praised Ms. Hammack as a very level-headed person with great experience.

“She seems to be a very good listener,” he said. “She asks good follow-up questions and is forthcoming with answers. She doesn’t skirt around the issues.”

Ms. Hammack reiterated that her goal is to bring inflation down to 2 percent and said that would take a couple years, depending on how the new policies of the administration play out. Those policies include those relating to tariffs, immigration, spending by the federal government, and deregulation.

Although Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has recently sent personnel into various government agencies demanding information on their operations and access to their computer systems, Ms. Hammack said that, so far, it has not come knocking on her door.

A recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland documented disparities between the growth in employment rates in cities such as Columbus and Cincinnati and marginal increases or declines in Dayton, Akron, and Toledo.

“There’s been this big migration demographically to the southeast generally, so I imagine what’s benefitting other parts of the state has to do with weather patterns and warmer weather,” Ms. Hammack said. “This flies in the face of all that we’ve learned about the potential climate change, but it’s certainly something we’re keeping our eye on.

“We were meeting this morning with the business and community leaders in Toledo. It’s great to see how community leaders have come together in Toledo and Akron to try to strengthen their downtown business districts.”

First Published March 24, 2025, 7:51 p.m.