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After La Crosse visit, Minneapolis Fed president talks housing, tariffs, and immigration
Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, joined in the WIZM studio for La Crosse Talk, discussing inflation, tariffs, interest rates, immigration, the housing crisis — and whether he ever gets to go into the vault.
La Crosse Talk airs weekdays at 6-8 a.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk wherever you get your podcasts.
Much of the conversation centered on housing and what role the Federal Reserve plays in addressing the crisis. Kashkari’s answer was simple: add supply.
We also talked about tariffs, the workforce, and artificial intelligence — and how those factors are affecting business, especially small ones.
On tariffs, Kashkari says his job is to speak plainly about their impact, noting that uncertainty around tariffs tends to drag the economy down.
As for the workforce, he emphasized that immigration is key, and noted that local elected officials agree: the U.S. needs a functioning legal immigration system.
Kashkari’s stop at WIZM happened after both a roundtable discussion with large and small La Crosse area businesses and then a town hall at the Chamber of Commerce.
There are 12 Federal Reserve Banks in the U.S., and Kashkari says this one — the Ninth District — is fairly diverse, calling it a “mini U.S.” that represents a little of everything.
Dylan
July 2, 2025 at 8:13 am
Didn’t we learn any lessons from interest rates being <3% from the end of President Trump's last term and the beginning of Biden's? Sure, if you are a homeowner, the value of your property will skyrocket. You just get stuck living in the same place unless you bite the bullet. With that being said, the majority who would benefit from lower rates would be corporations and the 1% who own all the real estate.
Good thing the big, beautiful bill puts restrictions on corporations with unlimited capital from purchasing single family homes and driving the prices even higher /S
Yvonne
July 5, 2025 at 6:01 pm
Agree 💯 with your statement. La Crosse/Onalaska real estate has skyrocketed and very few families can afford to buy anymore. The interest rates are way to high & most people can’t put 20% down on the average $350,000 home. There are way too many cheaply built apartment complexes going up, like the one across from Festival on Copeland. I know people who live there and they are experiencing problems like the only elevator breaking down, the fire alarm going off late at night because someone burned something on their stove. The alarm went off for several hours & the firemen couldn’t turn it off because the Manager of the building never gave the fire dept the code to turn it off. The list goes on and on and the owners don’t care or don’t know about all those terrible issues in that new building. I’m glad I don’t live there. The city should be aware of these problems and help those who have issues. I don’t think anyone from the company ever went through each apt. for problems before they started renting them out.