We are thrilled to announce that Colby Smith of The Financial Times is joining The Times as our new Federal Reserve correspondent.

Colby joins the economics team after nearly seven years at The F.T., where she most recently led the paper's coverage of the Fed and the world's largest economy as U.S. economics editor. In that role, she also wrote about the Treasury department, International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

She earlier served as a capital markets correspondent in New York and before that wrote for The F.T.'s finance and economics blog, Alphaville.

Colby began her career in financial journalism as a producer at Bloomberg Television after graduating from Brown University. She later earned a master's degree at the University of Cambridge and was a Marjorie Deane fellow at The Economist.

She starts this week. Please welcome her.