Adam Posen on a Surreal Jackson Hole in a Post-American World
Odd Lots
Bloomberg
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 26 August 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The annual Jackson Hole symposium is, formally speaking, an academic conference. Economists and central bankers gather to discuss the most important, cutting edge ideas in monetary policy. But there was certainly a different feel this year because of the relentless attacks on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell coming from President Trump. The whole premise of central bank independence is becoming a live question again. And without central bank independence, almost all of the more academic discussions feel like a waste of time. That makes for a surreal environment. On this episode of the podcast, we speak with Adam Posen, a former member of the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee, who now serves as President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He's the author of a recent Foreign Affairs article titled, "The New Economic Geography: Who Profits in a Post-American World." We talk about the shifting tectonic plates occurring domestically and internationally, what he sees as the folly of Trump's approach to trade and international relations, and how that intersects with the discourse among Central Bankers.
Read more:
What’s at Stake in the Fight Over Fed Independence
Former ECB Chief Says ‘Illusion’ of EU as a Global Power Dashed
Only http://Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Lisa Mateo, introducing you to the new Stockmovers report from Bloomberg. |
| 0:08.6 | These are short audio reports, five minutes or less, delivered right to your podcast feed throughout the day. |
| 0:15.2 | Stockmovers fills you in on the day's winners and losers on Wall Street and tells you about the news and data that's |
| 0:21.0 | driving those gains and losses. If you want to stay plugged into the stock market, but don't |
| 0:25.9 | want to spend all day watching tickers scroll across your screen, then Stock Movers is a place for you |
| 0:32.0 | to get informed. Listen a couple times throughout the day to find out what's moving equities and why. |
| 0:39.0 | Search for stock movers on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen. |
| 0:44.4 | Get the latest stock news and data backed by reporting from Bloomberg's 3,000 journalists and analysts across the globe. |
| 0:53.0 | Subscribe to Stockmovers, wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:00.0 | Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts Radio News. |
| 1:07.4 | Music News Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. |
| 1:22.4 | I'm Joe Wisenthall. |
| 1:23.6 | And I'm Tracy Allaway. |
| 1:24.8 | Tracy, we're still here at Jackson Hall. |
| 1:26.8 | It's funny saying things like we're still here because we're recording all these episodes at the same time and we don't really know exactly when you're listening. But this is yet another Jackson Hall episode. Another special missive from Jackson Hall. So I think there's like an element, if I'm being honest, a certain surreality of Jackson Hole this year because there's an academic conference historically. |
| 1:45.0 | And, you know, setting aside the chairman's speech, which we'll talk about more, |
| 1:49.1 | setting aside that speech, you know, it's a place for like talking about important issues |
| 1:52.6 | and, yeah, academic economics. And that's great. And I love that stuff. And it's super |
| 1:56.1 | interesting and all that. And yet, the big story is really the attack on the whole premise on the independent |
| 2:04.0 | central banks. And yet it's sort of like, it feels like everything but that gets talked about. |
| 2:08.4 | I think that's right. And you said setting aside Powell's speech, but it was very, very noticeable |
| 2:13.3 | that in his speech, he could have taken it as an opportunity to talk about things like |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bloomberg, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Bloomberg and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.