Posted on 08/22/2025 7:39:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The job market is on such shaky ground that the Federal Reserve may soon need to cut interest rates to support the economy, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Friday at a key central banking forum.
In one of his most consequential speeches, Powell suggested the labor market could benefit from lower rates, which the Fed has kept unchanged for eight straight months.
“Downside risks to employment are rising,” Powell said in prepared remarks for his keynote speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He said the possibility of Trump’s tariffs having only a short-lived effect on inflation is “reasonable.”
“With policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance,” he added.
The Jackson Hole conference is typically a major event in the world of central banking in which the Fed chair sets the tone for the rest of the year, but it has a radically different backdrop this year.
Powell’s Jackson Hole remarks, his last such as Fed chair, come at an inflection point in the central bank’s 111-year history. The Fed — and Powell in particular — has been subject to an unprecedented onslaught on attacks from the White House since Trump began his second term in January. But now, the Trump administration is expanding its assault on the central bank.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
“Too Late Powell”!
Aww, I wanted to see more Fed Governors investigated!
And boom goes the dynamite!
************
Three big areas of concern right now: softening of the labor market, the frozen housing market, and a debt stressed consumer. Some inflationary pressure still exist, but lowering rates a little could give the economy a much needed boost. JMO
PCE is next week. It will show a surge in inflation to 3% and higher.
Why is the turn up for inflation being ignored?
I suspect he’s defending the Fed Governor under attack.
yep, let’s cut rates with equities and home prices at ATH’s, and core inflation almost 50% above the Fed’s target. what could go wrong?
Sounds like he can’t make a comment without taking a swipe at Trump.
Or did he realize it just a little too late?
Dow and NASDAQ up around 2%.
Sing it from the mountaintops
The market is up over 1%, I wonder what the activity is of his private broker before and after he speaks?
“Well, my broker’s EF Hutton, and EF Hutton says.....”
Your aging both of us
Powell is paralyzed by “the data” which is like driving by watching your rear-view mirror and hood ornament. So now (too late) he’s ‘considering’ lowering rates.
The stock market, which unlike Powell is forward looking, celebrates.
“...yep, let’s cut rates with equities and home prices at ATH’s, and core inflation almost 50% above the Fed’s target. what could go wrong?”
The last time Powell lowered rates, inflation was at 5%. A weak labor market and recession possibility overrules sticky inflation.
He’d rather give a 1/4” than be prosecuted for anything—and his fellow Board members must be nervous as well.
This supposed future cut is already baked into the markets.
Mortgage rates likely to remain flat, or slightly increase.
Inflation is still a major threat.
These are the “experts” that are always surprised at the “unexpected” this or that.
He doesn’t know crap.
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