Every year in August, the Federal Reserve holds a small gathering of the world’s leading economists and policymakers against the backdrop of the Grand Teton Mountains in Wyoming.
Only about 120 people attend the event every year. Still, the publicly-released papers and speeches — as well as media engagements by policymakers — have made the Kansas City Fed’s Economic Policy Symposium a landmark event for Fed watchers and investors tuned in from afar.
The event has also become a globally significant affair, with central bank governors and heads travelling from as far as Japan to spend time at the Jackson Lake Lodge.
What happens at the symposium?
The late August event is usually three days and begins with a dinner on Thursday. The next morning usually starts with a speech from the sitting Fed chair, followed by other speeches and panel discussions.
The conference is separate from the Fed’s eight pre-scheduled policy-setting meetings, during which the Federal Open Market Committee votes to change interest rate or balance sheet policies in response to economic conditions.
But Fed chairs, aware of the heightened attention, have used speeches at the Jackson Hole meeting to provide an update on economic conditions and signal policy shifts ahead.
The heads of major central banks (i.e. the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of England) are familiar faces at the events, offering opportunities for face-to-face interactions in and outside of the Jackson Hole Lodge’s conference rooms.
On-site media interviews with various Fed officials add to the flurry of communication coming out of Jackson Hole, giving investors plenty of tea leaves to read on where policy could go in the future.
Read Orginal Source: Yahoo Finance
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