The address by the United States (US) Federal Reserve(the Fed) Chairman, Jerome Powell, at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium was disappointing in the sense that it provided none of the clarity that markets were hoping for. Powell did reiterate the Fed position that inflation is transitionary, and that the central bank will not take any action in terms of asset tapering or interest rate hikes until they are certain that these actions will not negatively affect the recovering US labour market.