What It’s Like to Be a Fed President at Jackson Hole

Joe Weisenthal (0:03)

Bloomberg Audio Studios.

Tracy Alloway (0:05)

Podcasts, radio, news. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:24)

And I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:25)

Joe, we are here at Jackson Hole, we made it.

Joe Weisenthal (0:28)

I love it here.

Tracy Alloway (0:29)

So, this is the annual economic symposium held by the Kansas City Fed. And it's sort of a gathering of central bankers and policy makers. And the idea is that, A, it's a chance for them to talk about the sort of pressing issues facing the global economy, and maybe their individual economies. It's a chance to go over academic literature and talk about ideas. It's also a chance potentially to guide monetary policy, at least for the Fed.

Joe Weisenthal (0:59)

Right. So, this is what people generally know. The Fed chair gives a speech. But there's also a bunch of, you know, like, in theory, and I suppose in practice, but in theory, it helps policy makers, central bankers around the world make better decisions in real time if they're up on the theories, or if they're up on what's happening in academic work and what research is being done in economics. And so, for example, the theme of this year is monetary policy transmission, which is another way of saying, how does monetary policy actually affect the real economy?

Tracy Alloway (1:29)

It's kind of a big topic.

Joe Weisenthal (1:30)

Yeah, but there are a lot of questions about that. And, you know, how the Fed is, say, going to proceed with the rate cut cycle? Well, you would want to know what rate cuts actually do, before, you know, and that might guide you. So it makes sense to sort of convene everyone here, talk about the latest research and what monetary policy actually does, and then maybe that can make for better short-term decisions.

Tracy Alloway (1:51)

Absolutely. And it sort of begs the question, I guess, what is it like to be a policy maker at Jackson Hole? So you and I are coming at it from an outsider's perspective, obviously. And I should just say, for people who don't know, there's only a handful of journalists, basically, who are allowed in the room where all these discussions happen and where Powell's speech is actually given. Everyone else is sort of milling around outside learning by osmosis what's being discussed in the room. And so I'm really curious what Jackson Hole is like for an actual central banker.

Joe Weisenthal (2:31)

Totally. I have to say, like when I go to conferences, you know, I'm like everyone else. I just want to like hang out in the lobby and chit chat with people. I don't actually like want to hear panels and stuff. So I sort of like that from me and you perspective, we don't have to feel guilty about not going into the panels and like listening, because we aren't even given the option in the first place. So we can just hang out in the lobby and the lodge and not feel like we're shirking our job.

Tracy Alloway (2:53)

Yeah, we physically can't try to gather information like normal journalists, because the Secret Service will stop us from entering the special room.

Joe Weisenthal (3:02)

That's right.

Tracy Alloway (3:02)

Okay, well, I am very happy to say that we do in fact have the perfect guest, someone who's been on the podcast before. We are going to be speaking with the president of the Richmond Fed, Mr. Tom Barkin, and he is going to tell us what it is like to actually be here at Jackson Hole as a Fed member.

Joe Weisenthal (3:21)

It's great because for people who remember the last time we talked to Tom Barkin, we went on a trip with him to North Carolina.

It's essentially the two sides of being a regional Fed president, the job. One part of the job is to understand what's going on in your district and Tom does that in various ways. But then the other part is essentially, we're not in DC, but the quote DC part of the job, where then you take the information that you learn and talk to other people and stay up to date on the latest literature and all this. So we're going to learn what it is that they really do here.

Tracy Alloway (3:57)

Okay, let's do it. Tom, welcome back to the show.

Tom Barkin (4:00)

It's great to see you guys again.

Tracy Alloway (4:01)

It's nice to see you in as lovely a setting as Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Joe Weisenthal (4:06)

Although, Monterey was great too.

Tracy Alloway (4:08)