The long-awaited Jackson Hole Summit has arrived. Chairman Powell gave his speech at 10 am EST on Friday and announced that the Central Bank was likely to begin tapering before the year ends while keeping his options open due to the Delta variant. The symposium was held virtually for the second consecutive year due to concerns about the pandemic.

Powell spent most of the speech making the case that inflation is transitory. According to the Fed Chief, the mighty forces of globalization and technological change are unlikely to subside when economies get roaring again. Powell didn’t give much credence to some of the hawkish arguments advanced by a growing chorus of Fed Bank Presidents but did say he stands right and ready to raise rates if inflation proves out of control. He said the Central Bank is carefully monitoring inflation expectations.

Perhaps Powell was a bit guarded as his would-be predecessor, Lawrence Summers penned an op-ed in the Washington Post that compared Powell’s “incremental thinking” to the failed counterinsurgency strategies in Afghanistan and Vietnam. Yikes. In any event, the meeting was largely dovish in the case of the inflation debate. While many had prepared for a hawkish surprise, the safe bet looks like November is probably the earliest ta...

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