Rose Baker and I are attending a meeting at the Inn at Pocono Manor in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania for a Wall Street West project meeting. Wall Street West is a partnership of more than two dozen northeastern Pennsylvania regional and statewide Pennsylvania economic development agencies, technology investment groups, workforce development organizations, educational and research institutions and private-sector experts. With a strategic location in northeastern Pennsylvania, the program is a federal- and state-funded initiative to develop a total back-up solution for New York City financial institutions in the event of a disaster.

In February 2006, the group secured a $15 million Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to assist in the initiative and encourage New York City-based financial institutions to establish their back-up and back-office operations in the region. The region involved in this grant consists of the following nine counties: Berks, Carbon, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike and Wayne.

Wall Street West is helping to preserve the sanctity of the U.S. financial system: It is the only program of its kind addressing all the recommendations outlined in an interagency paper from the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller that calls on major financial firms to have backup operations outside of New York's power and water infrastructure. With much of the nine-county region just a 90-minute drive from Manhattan, northeastern Pennsylvania is still close enough to allow for synchronous data transmission and easy employee access.

An easy ride. Great lunch. Pleasant day.