Fed Chair Kevin Warsh Just Said the Quiet Part Out Loud About Inflation -- and History Says Investors Should Listen
The Federal Reserve is probably on the verge of a new rate hike campaign.
Overview
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh used his Aug. 28 keynote speech at Jackson Hole to drive home the point that inflation is broader than the headline rate suggests, speaking directly to the everyday experiences of a rising price level that most people have been having for a while now. Specifically, Warsh said 54% of the 199 items in the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, which is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, had risen by more than 3% in the 12 months through summer 2026, versus 32% of those items in the two decades before the pandemic.
That's a bit of an awkward situation for the companies that make up the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), whose stellar growth in 2026 has been built on profits that are much higher than average. In short, the next thing the market will need to deal with is, in all probability, a Federal Reserve that's keen on making businesses pay more for each dollar of borrowing, which could in turn end up leading to investors paying less for each dollar of profit associated with the assets they buy.
Details
Here's how that could unfold, and soon.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.