Pretty backdrop. Same issues. Fed Chair Jerome Powell heads to Jackson Hole this week.

From Marketplace, I'm Nancy Marshall Genser in for David Brancaccio. This is a big week for Federal Reserve

watchers. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak at a research conference on Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Investors will be looking for hints

on when the Fed might lower interest rates. Julia Coronado joins me now to discuss this. She's

founder and president of macro policy perspectives and a professor at the University of Texas

Austin. Good morning, Julia. Good morning. So Fed Chair Powell has said he expects higher inflation from President

Trump's tariffs this summer. What do you expect to hear from Powell on that and other issues this

Friday? Usually the Jackson Hall speech is used to explore longer-term things. I think we will hear from

Chair Powell that right now there are risks

to both sides of their mandates, stable inflation, stable prices, and maximum employment.

And we've seen both some signs of inflation and tariffs pushing prices higher, as well as the

labor market weakening, which leaves the Fed kind of

in a bind. What do they do? If they lower interest rates, that might help the job market,

but stoke inflation, and vice versa. If they hold rates too high, that might keep inflation in check,

but hurt the labor market. Yeah, I mean, the Fed

really is being pulled in two directions here, isn't it? I mean, job creation has been weak. That

would tend to tip the balance toward an interest rate cut, but inflation is still sticky,

so rates need to stay higher to keep that under control. How is the Fed balancing those competing pressures?

Very carefully. So so far they have balanced it by doing nothing and holding interest rates

exactly where they are. They may go ahead with a rate cut in September. If they do so, we would expect it would probably

be one and no promises of more. Just wait and see, gather more data, see which risk is the

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