By Michael Every of Rabobank

The central-banking conference at Jackson Hole this year was virtual: how appropriate for these Covid times - and for central banks thinking there is anything that they can actually do about them. The highlight was Fed Chair Powell's speech, which comfortably met somnorific market expectations in being full of the aren't-we-doing-well-but-steady-now! rhetoric that is the life-blood of modern central banking. As our Fed-watcher Philip Marey puts it here, there was a lot of conditionality in terms of the path towards QE tapering (which is not the same as hiking rates). Powell of course expected inflation to prove transitory (but steady now!) and supply chain issues to resolve themselves soon – as queues at LA port remain near records, a category 5 hurricane bears down on Louisiana and the Mississippi transport delta, and growing media recognition that supply chains will still be snarled in 2022 at the least.