As investors squabble over when the Federal Reserve might lift short-term interest rates, central bankers meeting in Wyoming this week are likely to be debating what they might do if a future downturn forces them to put monetary policy into reverse.

Policymakers will meet at the mountain resort of Jackson Hole amid concerns that central banks’ recession-fighting firepower is thin, and that an overhaul may be needed for how authorities steer their way through the economic cycle.

Last week John Williams, the president of the San Francisco Fed, floated reform ideas that challenged some of the basic assumptions of the central banking tribe. Among his suggestions was the idea of aiming for a higher inflation target to boost central banks’ room for manoeuvre when a downturn strikes.