Powell has used Fed Jackson Hole symposium to battle inflation and buoy jobs; he's now caught between both

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell used the central bank’s annual Wyoming research conference to promise inflation-fighting rigor when it was needed in 2022, then last year he came to the defense of the job market with promises of lower interest rates when the unemployment rate seemed on asteady rise.

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Inhisvaledictory speech to the conference before his term ends next May, Powell on Friday faces a choice between the two approaches at a time when incoming information has confounded his data-dependent strategy by pulling in both directions. His colleagues are split whether higher inflation or higher unemployment is the bigger risk. Both investors and the Trump administration have strong expectations that rates will fall at the Fed’s September meeting regardless.

But whether rates do get cut then may be less important than how Mr. Powell frames the next steps in evaluating an economy that by some measures is slowing, but by others remains healthy with signs of rising prices still to come. While Mr. Powell has pivoted hard when needed, the current moment may find him still straddling the Fed’s twin goals of stable prices and low unemployment.