Description
WASHINGTON (TNND) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is set to deliver his last high-profile speech on Friday at the annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as he faces pressure from President Donald Trump to cut interest rates.
Powell will provide his outlook on the economy, which is marked by high uncertainty about its direction, with inflation still running hot and a stalling labor market.
The latest inflation report showed that price growth crept higher in July. Core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy categories, rose 3.1% from a year ago, above the Fed's 2% target.
While unemployment has stayed historically low, job creation has slowed, and more people are dropping out of the workforce. The most recent jobs report showed businesses added just 73,000 jobs and large downward revisions to the previous two months brought the three-month average gain down to 35,000.
Also at issue is how to handle Trump’s tariffs that have put a cloud of uncertainty over the trajectory of the economy and inflation. Widely expected increases in prices due to tariffs have been slow to materialize in data, despite increasing warnings from businesses about having to raise prices for consumers.
The update from the Fed comes as Trump continues to hurl insults at Powell and attempts to unseat Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook over alleged mortgage fraud.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte accused Cook earlier this week of committing mortgage fraud, prompting an investigation by the Department of Justice.
“Cook must resign, now!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
After July’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, Powell told reporters that officials still needed more time to figure out how the tariffs would impact the economy.
“We’ve learned that the process will probably be slower than, than expected at the beginning, but we never expected it to be fast. And we think we have a long way to go to really understand exactly how we’ll be,” Powell said.
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Editor's note: The National News Desk's Austin Denean contributed to this article.
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