My take: inflation, pricing and salaries

One of the perks that come with the post of Federal Reserve Bank president is attending the annual powwow in scenic Jackson Hole.

The financial community closely watches news from the invite-only shindig in Wyoming that often leads to big announcements. This year is no exception.

On Friday Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced that an interest rate cut is coming after signs of a slowdown in the economy and a cooling of the inflation rate. He was joined by Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker who strongly endorsed a reduction in a CNBC interiew from Jackson Hole.

Financial markets have baked in a rate cut into stock prices, and home mortgage interest rates have been trending downward. Despite all that, today's announcement led to stock market gains.

Lowering the inflation rate is a painful process that froze many would-be home and car buyers out of the market.

Also, a lower inflation rate does not mean prices go down, especially when it comes to food and other everyday items. One exception is lumber, although that has yet to translate into lower new home prices.

In speeches over the past couple of years, former University of Delaware President Harker acknowledged the difficulty of using interest rate hikes as a blunt object in cooling down inflation.

After all, high prices on everyday items and higher interest rates impact families and individuals with lower incomes more than those with ample paychecks and investment income.

All of this made "price gouging" into a campaign issue with food manufacturing giants and grocery stores taking the brunt of the criticism.

While the allegations often amount to election-year rhetoric, food behemoths' financial engineering efforts that cater to restless shareholders and private equity investors come with pricing power.

One example of the trend is the planned merger of Kellogg's attractive non-cereal spin-off business to candy and pet food giant Mars.

After paying more than $40 billion for the maker of Eggo Waffles and Cheese-Its, Mars won't be in the mood to cut prices. It's also used to taking heat. As you might remember, the candy giant was taken to task for the rising price and smaller size of its popular Snickers bar.

Consolidation has also keep prices up at food wholesalers for restaurants and other businesses, with eye-popping increases for some items.

By contrast, grocery store competition is fierce.

If you want to avoid paying $4 for a gallon of milk at Acme and Shoprite, you can head to Aldi, Food Lion or even Rite Aid.

As for Federal Reserve presidents, they're doing just fine on the financial front, although none get Elon Musk-like pay packages that reflect their power to move the marketplace.

For example, Pat Harker, once one of the nation's highest-paid state university presidents, took a sizable cut in becoming the Philly Fed CEO, going from $850,000 a year in 2010 to an estimated $400,000 in 2024.

Adjusted for inflation, his UD salary in 2024 would total $1.2 million. His successor, Dennis Assanis, pulls down an impressive $1.5 million as he leads the university's recent belt tightening.

Here's hoping you got a chance to enjoy this long run of beautiful weather that is expected to extend into this weekend. - Doug Rainey, chief content officer.