Fed Accepts Inflation Above Target, Says JPMorgan Strategist

JPMorgan's own strategist, Jacob Manoukian, has made a surprising statement about the Federal Reserve's stance on inflation. Speaking to CNBC on September 3, 2026, he said that the Fed has effectively accepted inflation above its stated target of 2% rather than pay the economic price of forcing it back down.

This implies that every fixed-income position in portfolios is mispriced, and investors should be looking at assets whose earnings power scales with the price level. Gold sits at the center of this trade, and Newmont (NYSE:NEM | NEM Price Prediction), the world's largest gold producer, is a prominent large-cap vehicle tied to this view.

Manoukian's logic for why the Fed accepts higher inflation is arithmetic on the national debt. He said that by driving nominal GDP growth, the Fed can correct the debt-to-GDP ratio without forcing inflation back down to 2%.