Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Janet Yellen to skip Jackson Hole symposium this month

Janet Yellen and other Fed members are questioning with how to approach the September 2015 FOMC decision as the Fed Chairwoman won't be at the Jackson Hole symposium.

Dr Yellen revealed in late May that she was planning to skip the event. It's historically the place where central bankers set the agenda for the final four months of the year. But Yellen also skipped out last year and Bernanke snubbed it the year before. Most famously, it was at the conference where he laid the groundwork for QE2. 

So far, we have little indication of who will be attending Jackson Hole. The program isn't released until August 27, the day the conference begins.

The theme this year is "Inflation Dynamics and Monetary Policy," which is well chosen because the lack of inflation is the critical question facing the Fed and almost every other central bank.

At the moment, the Fed calendar is very thin. There are speeches from Williams and Kocherlakota this week but nothing else on the schedule. Expect a few high profile names to leak onto the informal schedule next week.