Kevin Warsh steps up to the podium at the Kansas City Fed’s Jackson Hole symposium today at 10 a.m. ET, delivering what amounts to his first marquee public address since taking over as Federal Reserve Chair in May. The timing could hardly be more consequential.
US inflation has now exceeded the Fed’s 2% target for 65 consecutive months. That’s more than five years of prices running hotter than the central bank’s benchmark, a streak that has tested the patience of consumers, investors, and policymakers alike. Long-dated Treasury yields have recently climbed to multi-year highs, and markets are increasingly pricing in the possibility that rate hikes, not cuts, are the next move.
What Warsh is expected to address
The federal funds rate currently sits in a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%, a level that reflects the Fed’s ongoing attempt to wrestle inflation back toward 2% without choking economic growth entirely. Warsh, who assumed the chairmanship on May 22, 2026, for a four-year term, has so far played his cards close to the chest.
His previous FOMC press conferences have been described as deliberately ambiguous, offering what analysts characterize as “big questions” rather than concrete near-term policy signals. Today’s speech is expected to range well beyond the usual rate-path chatter. Warsh has reportedly been focused on structural themes: the impact of artificial intelligence on productivity, global economic shocks, and demographic trends reshaping labor markets.
