US News & World Report reported this year’s gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, billed as the Federal Reserve Board’s research symposium, “comes as the Federal Reserve is facing crucial decisions about whether and when to pull back on its highly accommodative monetary policy, which has kept interest rates low and helped stabilize the economy and the markets for 17 months.” Most observers expect any interest rate cuts “to begin next year with interest rate hikes not before the end of 2022 or perhaps not even until 2023,” but that “calculation has run into a wall of uncertainty amid the rise in coronavirus infections from the delta variant, which has led many governments, schools and businesses to impose new restrictions such as mask mandates and vaccine requirements.” The Fed “is very conscious of the reality that the markets are pretty much geared to low rates forever,” says Amit Sinha, head of multi asset design at Voya Investment Management. “Anything that allows the Fed to continue their easy stance for longer, they would rather be late to tightening than early.”