Friday, August 28 — Jackson Hole
Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh delivered his first Jackson Hole keynote as Chairman, titled “In Our Time,” at the Kansas City Fed’s economic policy symposium themed “Financial Innovation: Implications for Payments and Policy.”
What he said, in his own words:
“I would be hard pressed to describe broad financial conditions as restrictive.”
“We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective, clearly and at sufficient speed. Otherwise, we have work to do.”
“While this summer’s PCE and CPI readings were better than expected, they do not tell me that underlying trends have meaningfully improved.”
“We should not indulge a regime in which market participants are looking primarily to the Fed for their next trade.”
“I stand here today committed to a discipline, not to a decision.”
What he did not say: he gave no explicit rate path, no forward guidance, and no reaction function. He confirmed the Fed’s five internal task forces (communications, balance sheet, data, productivity/jobs, inflation frameworks) are underway, with recommendations expected later this year and no bearing on current policy.
The Other Story This Week
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expanded long-dated Treasury buyback operations in the days ahead of Jackson Hole — an off-cycle move outside the normal quarterly refunding schedule, aimed at containing long-end yields amid heavy AI-related borrowing.
Debt management has historically been Treasury’s lane; shaping long-term rates and broader credit conditions has been the Fed’s. The overlap is the story. A former Fed adviser described the timing, coming directly ahead of the Chairman’s highest-stakes speech to date, as “a real pain for Warsh.”
Facts speak, reader decides.
Where ETH Sits
Ethereum trades near $2,500 as of this writing, up from its 2026 lows and holding above its major moving averages on the daily chart. None of this week’s Fed or Treasury news mentioned digital assets directly — the Jackson Hole symposium’s “Financial Innovation” theme addressed payments and stablecoin infrastructure in adjacent papers and panels, not in the Chairman’s own remarks.
The infrastructure build continues independent of any single week’s headlines. That has been the thesis since the beginning: institutions are not trading the news cycle, they are building the rails.
Mark Berube, ChFC, CLU President, Patriot Advisory Group LLC (dba Quantum Capital)
Ike Fontaine Co-Founder
Quantum Capital
Disclosures
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Digital assets, including Ethereum, are speculative, involve a high degree of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Nothing in this communication should be construed as a recommendation to purchase or sell any specific security or digital asset.
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Insights from Mark Berube
