As central bankers from around the world descend on Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the first in-person annual conference since 2019, Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell will face something that was largely absent during the past two virtual meetings: a tough crowd.
Celebrated two years ago for rescuing the global economy and financial system from a catastrophic pandemic-induced crash, the US central bank has since faltered, initially misdiagnosing what has become the most acute inflation problem in four decades and then being forced to play catch-up.
As a result, Powell, who was reappointed to a second term in November, is under immense pressure to execute a historically difficult task: fine-tune monetary policy to safeguard the Fed’s inflation-fighting credentials without causing more job losses than necessary.