# Fed Chair Kevin Warsh Leans on an Old Jackson Hole Hiking Joke to Signal a Softer Tone

> Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh opened his first Jackson Hole address by joking about past hikes with former Fed vice chair Donald Kohn, using the moment to mark a shift from the hawkish silence of his July meeting toward a more detailed read on the economy.

- Source: American Post News
- Canonical URL: https://americanpostnews.net/article/fed-chair-kevin-warsh-leans-on-an-old-jackson-hole-hiking-joke-to-signal-a-softer-tone
- Author: staff
- Section: Economy
- Published: 2026-10-28T15:51:25.564Z
- Updated: 2026-10-28T15:51:25.564Z
- Tags: Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, Jackson Hole, Interest Rates

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Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh opened his August Jackson Hole speech, his first as chairman, by recalling hikes he once took near the Wyoming resort town with former Fed vice chair Donald Kohn and former Bank of England governor Mark Carney back in August 2010. Warsh described Kohn's version of those hikes as steely marathon death marches, distinct from the more leisurely pace former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke preferred, and asked the audience to judge for themselves whether a given day's remarks counted as a Kohn day or a Bernanke day.

Kohn told Fortune that Warsh approached him just before the speech to ask permission to use the story. Kohn called the resulting address constructive, and said it marked a shift from Warsh's July Federal Open Market Committee meeting, when he declined to offer forward guidance and drew criticism, to a more detailed, nuanced discussion of the economy in August.

That July reticence had rattled markets, with Treasury yields rising after the meeting as investors reacted to Warsh's refusal to signal the committee's thinking on future rate moves. Kohn said Warsh has adapted as he has learned in the role, a change he said was reflected in the more substantive tone of the Jackson Hole remarks the following month.

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Originally published by American Post News. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://americanpostnews.net/article/fed-chair-kevin-warsh-leans-on-an-old-jackson-hole-hiking-joke-to-signal-a-softer-tone.