Why is there so much hype over the Jackson Hole conference?

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Mo., has been hosting its annual financial conference since 1978, although it used to move around to different locations and drew little attention outside of economic analysts. But in 2010, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke used his speech there to lay out the Fed’s policy options on spurring economic growth, which included a second round of bond purchases that began in November 2010. That speech sparked a 28 percent stock market rally over the next eight months. Most analysts don’t expect Bernanke to make such news Friday, but market-watchers are paying a lot of attention anyway.