JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — With the banking world set to descend on Jackson Hole for a mix of financial falderal and fly fishing, the irony of hosting a harrumph-harrumph suit soiree for those in the international investment sector in a county where the gulf between fat cats and 99 percenters is as big as weekly Dow Jones gains, was not lost on this publication.
COVID put a damper on the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Economic Policy Symposium in Jackson Hole, scheduled to kick off this Friday. The event will go entirely virtual so the battle for spendy VRBOs might ease a bit for the weekend.
“While we are disappointed that health conditions will prevent us from being able to gather in person at the Jackson Lake Lodge this year as we had planned, the safety of our guests and the Teton County community is our priority,” said Esther George, president and CEO of the Kansas City Fed.
Further irony is not hard to find. The event theme—Macroeconomic Policy in an Uneven Economy—was to have taken place in Teton County, home to the nation’s highest per capita income from assets, according to a study by the Economic Innovation Group. Economic diversity in Jackson Hole is the stuff of legend. “Billionaires squeezing out the millionaires” used to be the old joke. No one’s laughing at that one anymore.
