Neel Kashkari spoke in North Dakota on Thursday and gave a skeptical take on crypto. He said it has been around for over a decade but is "utterly useless" compared to tools like AI. He specifically questioned what stablecoins offer that Venmo or PayPal don't. He also addressed political pressure on the Fed. He defended a NY Fed study on tariffs and mentioned a recent DOJ subpoena as attempts to compromise their independence. On the data front, he sees inflation between 2.5% and 3% with unemployment at 4.3%. He thinks the current policy stance is close to neutral.