STORY: “The ayes are 54. The nays are 45. The nomination is confirmed.”The Senate on Wednesday approved Kevin Warsh as chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, putting the 56-year-old lawyer and financier at the helm as the U.S. central bank grapples with climbing inflation that may make it hard to push through the interest-rate cuts President Donald Trump has demanded. Warsh will take the leadership baton from Jerome Powell, whose term as Fed Chair ends on Friday.He joins a central bank engaged in a debate over the possibility of hiking interest rates amid a spike in oil prices from the Iran war.Joe Hegener, founder and chief investment officer at Asterozoa Capital, believes the Fed will likely cut rates later in the year anyway … under Warsh’s stewardship.”I think Kevin Warsh is going to have influence, but of course it’s not all up to Kevin Warsh. You know, he’s the chair effectively, and you know, he’ll be able to have his say effectively, but I don’t envision any dramatic overhaul of what the Fed looks like next year versus what it looked like last year. I still think that the Fed is going to cut rates towards the end of the year, particularly if we’re able to get some resolution around the war in the Middle East. The fears that CPI is going to take off in my view are overblown. I think it’s very likely the Fed looks through the energy shock.”Warsh’s swearing-in to the four-year Fed chair term now awaits final White House signatures on paperwork sent by the Senate. A White House official said Trump, currently in China for meetings with President Xi Jinping, “intends to sign paperwork as soon as possible to restore confidence in Fed decision-making. Warsh is expected to be in place to chair the Fed’s next meeting on June 16 and 17th.
