Warsh to deliver first Jackson Hole address with inflation at 3.4%
The Fed chair has stepped back from traditional forward guidance since taking office in May, leaving markets to read a 20-to-30-minute speech for direction on September.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is scheduled to deliver his first keynote address at the Kansas City Fed’s Jackson Hole economic symposium on Friday, August 28, in what will be the most closely examined speech of his tenure so far.
Warsh took office in May 2026. Since then he has moved away from the practice of traditional forward guidance, declining to signal specific rate decisions in advance and instead directing attention to a broader, data-dependent framework. That approach has raised the stakes for set-piece appearances: with fewer explicit signals between meetings, each speech carries more of the interpretive weight.
The address is expected to run roughly 20 to 30 minutes and will be carried on the Kansas City Fed’s website and YouTube channel.
Markets will be reading it against inflation at 3.4% and a Committee that revealed a three-vote hawkish dissent at its July meeting. The specific question is whether Warsh offers any framing for the September FOMC meeting, or whether he confines himself to the longer-horizon themes the symposium is designed around.
Jackson Hole has historically been used by Fed chairs to introduce shifts in framework rather than to pre-announce individual decisions, and Warsh’s stated preference for avoiding forward guidance points in the same direction. Investors expecting an explicit signal on September may find the speech deliberately unaccommodating on that point.