Powell's 8-min speech at Jackson Hole erases $78 bn from richest Americans

US central bank will keep raising interest rates and probably leave them elevated for a while to reduce inflation

In the span of just eight minutes, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sparked a market rout that slashed the fortunes of America’s richest people by $78 billion.

Elon Musk’s saw $5.5 billion erased from his wealth. Jeff Bezos lost $6.8 billion, the most of anyone on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The fortunes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett declined by $2.2 billion and $2.7 billion, respectively, while Sergey Brin’s was knocked below $100 billion.

Powell used his speech at the Kansas City Fed’s annual policy forum in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to reiterate that the 

US central bank will keep raising interest rates and