Comparisons to the 2022 Speech: Still Hawkish, but Less So

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech from Jackson Hole a year ago shocked Wall Street because of its brevity and the intensity of the warning it brought. With inflation now down significantly from year-ago levels, Powell made clear on Friday that “the message is the same,” and that the Fed still has more work to do. Instead of outright “pain,” he said instead that there would likely need to be “some softening in labor market conditions” in order for inflation to slow back to target levels.