Kevin Warsh was sworn in Friday as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, taking over leadership of the world’s most powerful central bank at a moment of rising inflation fears, market jitters and ongoing concerns about the entity’s independence.
President Donald Trump said at a White House ceremony Warsh would be “totally independent”
“I want Kevin to be totally independent,” he said. “Don’t look at me, don’t look at anybody.”
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas swore in Warsh, 56, whom the Senate confirmed as chair last week.
Warsh succeeds Jerome Powell, who has the option to remain on the Fed’s board through January 2028. In a break from precedent, Powell has indicated he’ll take that step after years of Trump blasting him for failing to lower interest rates quickly enough.
The transition comes as inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% target and policymakers debate whether rates may need to rise again despite Trump’s long-running demands for cuts.
Bond traders are already betting Warsh may have to raise interest rates before the end of the year — a dramatic reversal from earlier Wall Street expectations that Trump’s handpicked Fed chief would usher in rapid rate cuts.
Markets sharply repriced Friday after Fed Governor Christopher Waller warned policymakers should remain open to additional tightening as inflation pressures intensify, underscoring the economic minefield Warsh inherits on day one.
The former Morgan Stanley banker has repeatedly argued the Fed kept policy too loose for too long and allowed inflation to spiral. He has also blasted the central bank’s massive bond-buying campaigns and promised to shrink the Fed’s balance sheet.
During his confirmation hearings, Warsh declared that “inflation [is] the Fed’s choice,” arguing policymakers have the tools to restrain price growth if they are willing to use them.
Warsh has been seen as more amenable to cutting rates than Powell.
During his confirmation process, he insisted he would maintain the central bank’s autonomy while aligning broadly with the administration’s economic agenda.
His confirmation ran into an impasse earlier this year when Sen. Thom Tillis (R-Fla.) vowed to block the nomination while the Justice Department investigated Powell over his comments on renovations to the Fed’s Washington headquarters. The probe was ultimately dropped, clearing the way for the Senate vote.
The Senate confirmed Warsh in a 55-45 vote on May 13, with Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and is Chris Coons (D-Del.) the sole Dems to join the slim Republican majority.
Warsh is hardly a newcomer to the institution he now leads.
Born in Albany, NY, he studied public policy at Stanford University before earning a law degree from Harvard. He later joined Morgan Stanley’s mergers-and-acquisitions division before moving into the George W. Bush White House as a senior economic adviser.
Bush appointed Warsh to the Fed’s Board of Governors in 2006 when he was just 35 years old, making him the youngest governor in modern Fed history.
During the financial crisis, Warsh became one of the Fed’s key emissaries to global markets and foreign governments. He later emerged as an internal critic of the central bank’s increasingly aggressive intervention policies before departing in 2011.
Warsh is married to Jane Lauder, an heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics fortune and daughter of billionaire Ronald Lauder, linking the new Fed chair to one of New York’s most powerful business dynasties.
