Investors expecting to hear Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell give guidance Friday about the central bank's September meeting may be in for a letdown. This is because Powell will want to keep his options open in his speech in Jackson Hole,

The takeaway is that markets aren’t pricing in any sort of “succession premium” tied to any one chairman. The glidepath of monetary policy — regardless of Powell’s successor — appears structural, anchored to the Fed’s backward-looking framework . If that holds, it would mark a break from recent history.

The framework is part of the Fed’s commitment to transparency. The Fed does not have a crystal ball on the economy, nor should it pretend to. What it can do is be clear about its thinking and its process. The opening of the framework (unchanged since the first version in 2012) emphasizes that commitment: