Central bankers left Jackson Hole with no easy answers

The 2025 Jackson Hole summit ended in total ￰0￱ Federal Reserve’s top officials met in Wyoming last week, and nobody left with a clear ￰1￱ to Bloomberg, Jerome Powell used his Friday speech to hint at a possible interest rate cut in ￰2￱ nothing was decided. Everyone’s split. Inflation’s ￰3￱ are ￰4￱ pressure from the White House is now front and ￰5￱ said the Fed was facing a “challenging situation.” He wasn’t ￰6￱ central bank’s 2% inflation target is still being missed, and recent numbers suggest prices are going ￰7￱ the same time, the job market’s taking ￰8￱ slowed sharply over the ￰9￱ unemployment remains low, demand and supply in the labor market are both ￰10￱ described the current labor conditions as “curious,” adding that it’s unclear where things are headed ￰11￱ clashes over rate path and political heat The divide inside the Fed became clearer during the ￰12￱ members want to lower ￰13￱ are worried it’s too ￰14￱ Fed President Austan Goolsbee said the hardest part of the job is “to get the timing right at moments of transition.” And right now, no one agrees on the ￰15￱ July’s meeting, two Fed governors dissented when officials held rates ￰16￱ a cut comes in September, more dissents could follow in the opposite ￰17￱ didn’t sound ￰18￱ year’s speech was weaker than last year’s, when there was stronger support for immediate ￰19￱ then, inflation looked like it was ￰20￱ ￰21￱ are now visibly raising prices, and there are signs that inflation is spreading to products and services not directly affected by those ￰22￱ new detail emerged: Powell introduced a revised policy ￰23￱ Fed has updated its internal guidebook for how it tackles inflation and ￰24￱ last version, made during the pandemic, focused too much on low ￰25￱ one is ￰26￱ brings the Fed’s attention back to its basic goals, full employment and price ￰27￱ Pflueger, an associate professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, said Powell’s focus was clear: “His job is inflation and unemployment, and that can only be achieved within an independent Fed.” Tension grows as Trump targets the Fed Tensions at Jackson Hole weren’t just about ￰28￱ were also about ￰29￱ Donald Trump used the same Friday morning to go after Fed Governor Lisa ￰30￱ said Cook should resign or be fired because of allegations tied to mortgage ￰31￱ has been pressuring the Fed hard to cut rates, and his move against Cook was just another part of that ￰32￱ around the event was the tightest it’s been in ￰33￱ officers from the Fed Police, ￰34￱ Police, and the local sheriff’s office patrolled the lodge ￰35￱ Friday, they had to escort James Fishback, a known Trump supporter and critic of the Fed, out of the ￰36￱ shouted at Cook in the lobby, demanding answers about the fraud ￰37￱ political tension didn’t go ￰38￱ economist Karen Dynan, a regular at the symposium, said attendees mostly avoided discussing politics during formal ￰39￱ it still came up over coffee and ￰40￱ pointed out that serious economic questions require more than gut instinct: “These are not problems that can be solved by thinking about one’s intuition or talking to just a circle of people around ￰41￱ really need this sort of expertise.” International guests responded fast to Powell’s ￰42￱ euro rose 1% against the dollar right after he ￰43￱ made things worse for Europe, where inflation is already expected to drop to 1.6% next ￰44￱ Difference Wire : the secret tool crypto projects use to get guaranteed media coverage