Markets dropped in response to the speech by Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, at Jackson Hole, Wyoming last week. In strong and unambiguous language, Powell pledged the Fed's efforts to crush inflation, saying the overarching objective was to bring inflation down to the agency's 2 percent goal. "Price stability is the responsibility of the Federal Reserve and serves as the bedrock of our economy," the Fed chairman stated. Powell pointed to higher interest rates in the future as well as a "restrictive monetary policy." DICK BOVE, chief financial strategist at ODEON CAPITAL GROUP,  praises Powell's speech in this latest episode. "I really loved the speech, it was short and sweet and to the point," he said. BOVE explains why investors were shocked.  MAT VAN ALSTYNE, ODEON co-founder and managing partner, weighs in on what investors may really be thinking of Powell's posture.

The CONVERSATION also picks up on BOVE'S comprehensive new study on US inflation in the modern era. BOVE warns that many analysts have often overlooked the broader causes of the inflation that ravaged the US economy and led to stagflation in the 1970s. With lessons for today's soaring prices, BOVE says that to tamp down inflation, it was imperative to rein in the creation of credit. With student debt forgiveness in the headlines, the CONVERSATION has a lively debate on the US college system and student financing. The college system is broken, the CONVERSATION concludes. JOHN AIDAN BYRNE notes, for instance, the shortage of skilled vocational and professional workers in the labor markets as evidence of an education system that is underachieving.