July Fed Minutes, Etched CEO Interview, Latest Ultra-Wealthy Investments 8/19/26

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**Brian Sullivan** (0:49)
Moderna, exploding higher bond yields. They're lower, all under the surface of an otherwise quiet day for stocks. Welcome to Power Lunch, everybody, with Kelly, I am Brian. Long dated bond yields. They're down. Uncle Sam stepping up the debt buybacks. The meantime, healthcare energy, new records, the set up for markets, and the fate of the AI trade all coming up.

**Kelly Evans** (1:10)
Remember this guy, Koli, he was on set with us just months ago. Now his parent company, Unitree, is leaping higher in its Shanghai debut.
Where can investors get a leg up on robotics here at home? Plus, we're not done with chips, three 24-year-olds, a $21 billion valuation, and one of Silicon Valley's hottest startups. The CEO of Etched joins us exclusively.
But let's begin with some breaking news out of Washington, DC. The July Fed Minutes just posted. This is all we get out of the Fed anymore, Steve.

**Steve Liesman** (1:43)
The minutes for the July meeting, Kelly, say that most supported maintaining the current range. However, many thought a policy tightening would likely be necessary if inflation did not decline. Important to note, there was a softer inflation report after this came out. Participants thought new information that they gathered between the meetings could help them make a decision to take some of the uncertainty out of it. Some saw financial conditions not tight enough to bring inflation down to 2%.
Chairman Warsh spoke in favor at this meeting of six meetings per year, saying it would allow more information to accumulate between meetings.
There's quite a robust inflation debate at this meeting. Several saw price increases as broad-based over the past year, saying underlying inflation looked to be elevated even after accounting for tariffs and those higher energy prices. They debated, most thought inflation would step down, but some noted the possibility it might be more persistent. Several, they debated whether or not businesses could pass along these higher prices or would they pass along to consumers, and the impact of the AI build out. Just a couple more things here. Inflation risks were seen as skewed to the upside, and there was concern about inflation expectations getting out of control after having been elevated for so long, especially with successive supply shocks. The labor market was seen as stable. There was concern, a lot of talk about AI and the impact. Several noted fears of widespread job loss from AI had not materialized, but they discussed the possibility that AI developments could disappoint. This is something around the table at the Fed, where they said an AI disappointment could lead, quote, to a significant repricing of stocks with consequent negative effects on consumer spending. There were also concerns about repricing of assets generating tighter financial conditions. So quite a lot of debate going on at that table. I guess the story here is Kevin Warsh wanted a family fight. He got one over the inflation outlook, along with some concern about AI developments, including by the way, one where an intermeeting incident involved disruption to transaction settlements that was discussed. It was a public thing that happened in June, guys, but that made the minutes here.

**Brian Sullivan** (3:49)
So there's a lot of meat there. I also want to get to the table setting because he wants the family fight around that table.
But it sounds like he wants six family fights, six meetings a year. There's eight this year, so two would go away. Any mention, Steve, of what might happen to the press conference as well, because I know from Steve Leesman that maybe Chairman Warsh is not the same fan of that presser as his predecessors.

**Steve Liesman** (4:17)
Yeah, I don't know about that. I think he was quoting George Shultz who said, only have a press conference when you have something to say.
And it may be that Kevin Warsh doesn't feel like he has something to say after every meeting. And honestly, the way he answered some of the questions that didn't answer them, it wasn't clear he had something to say. So there's a question about whether or not he finds that rhythm, essentially, of how to either not answer the questions or to actually answer the questions that are out there. So there is nothing in the minutes about the press conferences, but you can bet that that is something under consideration, Ryan.