{"id":28409,"date":"2026-05-13T22:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/28409\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T22:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:48:08","slug":"senate-confirms-kevin-warsh-as-federal-reserve-chairman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/28409\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate confirms Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chairman"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump\u2019s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh<\/a>, bringing new leadership to the world\u2019s most powerful central bank at a fraught moment for the global economy<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Warsh, 56, a former top Fed official, was confirmed Wednesday in a largely party-line 54-45 vote and will replace Jerome Powell as chair at an unusually difficult time for the independent agency.<\/p>\n

Inflation has topped the Fed\u2019s 2% target<\/a> for five years and is now rising faster because of spiking gas prices<\/a>. The Fed\u2019s interest rate-setting committee is divided and saw the most dissenting votes<\/a> in more than three decades last month. And Powell, after years of personal attacks from Trump and an unprecedented Justice Department investigation<\/a>, plans to remain on the Fed\u2019s board even after his term as chair ends, potentially creating a competing power center.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a floor speech that it\u2019s critical that a Fed chair \u201cunderstand not only the macro\u201d but also \u201cappreciate the microeconomy: and that\u2019s the hardworking Americans, their jobs and their livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKevin Warsh is just such a person,\u201d Thune said. <\/p>\n

Trump has demanded change at the Federal Reserve<\/p>\n

The Fed has faced threats to its independence<\/a> from Trump, who has repeatedly attacked Powell for not cutting interest rates. Trump also sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook<\/a> and launched an investigation<\/a> into Powell\u2019s Senate testimony about a building renovation. <\/p>\n

The probe of Powell had threatened to derail Warsh\u2019s nomination, as Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina vowed to withhold support until the investigation was terminated. The probe was ultimately dropped in April<\/a>. Every Republican voted for Warsh on Wednesday, as did Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House\u2019s National Economic Council, said in a Fox News interview on Sunday that he believes the markets are relieved that Warsh \u201cis going to help lower interest rates over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, data driven,\u201d said Hassett. \u201cI\u2019m not putting any pressure on Kevin Warsh.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December, Trump said on his social media platform that he wanted a Fed chair who would cut interest rates when the stock market rose \u2014 the opposite of what traditional economics would prescribe \u2014 and added, \u201cAnyone that disagrees with me will never be the Fed chairman!\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments have fueled concerns over whether Warsh will set rates based on economic conditions or instead seek to appease Trump, even if doing so could worsen inflation. At Warsh\u2019s confirmation hearing<\/a> last month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, derided him as a \u201csock puppet\u201d for Trump. <\/p>\n

Still, Warsh denied at the hearing that Trump had pressured him to reduce the Fed\u2019s key rate. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will be an independent actor if confirmed as chair of the Federal Reserve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A critic of the Fed\u2019s leadership in the past<\/p>\n

Warsh has been highly critical of the Fed\u2019s recent track record, particularly the inflation spike in 2021-22, the worst in four decades.<\/p>\n

He has called for limiting the Fed\u2019s communications, which would be a sharp shift after decades of growing transparency. He has argued that some of its communications tools, such as quarterly forecasts of where its key rate may head, have made it harder for officials to switch gears.<\/p>\n

Senate Democrats have also condemned Warsh<\/a> for not fully divulging the details of his wealth, which amounts to at least $100 million. His investments include stakes in Polymarket and SpaceX, but he hasn\u2019t revealed the size of those holdings. He promised to sell all such assets within 90 days of being sworn in.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be the wealthiest Fed chair in history, but he refuses to provide transparency to the American people about who he is entangled with,\u201d Warren said. <\/p>\n

Warsh faces <\/p>\n

difficult economic conditions <\/p>\n

The Fed is still grappling with how to respond to the 50% spike in gas prices caused by the war in Iran. The increase has boosted inflation, which reached 3.8% in April<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Fed is tasked by Congress with keeping prices stable, which it seeks to do by raising its short-term rate to make borrowing and spending more expensive, cooling growth and inflation. <\/p>\n

The Fed typically looks past temporary price increases that stem from supply disruptions, such as the war\u2019s cutoff of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, because those prices typically level off \u2014 or even fall \u2014 once supply is restored. <\/p>\n

But the Fed also followed that approach after the coronavirus pandemic snarled global supply chains. Inflation turned out to last longer than expected, and Powell and other Fed officials have acknowledged that they waited too long to raise rates. Inflation surged to 9.1% by June 2022.<\/p>\n

The Fed\u2019s rate-setting committee has kept rates unchanged for three straight meetings as it evaluates the spike in gas prices. At its most recent meeting last month, three members of the committee objected to language<\/a> that suggested its next move would be a rate cut. They preferred more neutral language that would allow for a hike. Many Fed watchers saw those dissents as a warning shot to Warsh that he won\u2019t be able to easily engineer rate reductions.<\/p>\n

A fourth member of the 12-member committee, Stephen Miran, dissented in favor of a rate cut, as he has at every meeting since Trump appointed him to the Fed\u2019s board last September. Miran is serving until a replacement is named, and Warsh will take his spot. <\/p>\n

Powell, meanwhile, said at a news conference on April 29 that he would remain as a Fed governor until the Justice Department closes its investigation into the Fed\u2019s building project<\/a>, the first time a chair may stay on the board for an extended period since 1948. His term as a governor lasts until January 2028. <\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has dropped the government\u2019s probe, but she has said it could be reopened if the Fed\u2019s inspector general, which has looked into the renovation project since last July, finds evidence of criminal activity. ___<\/p>\n

Follow the AP\u2019s coverage of the Federal Reserve System at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/federal-reserve-system<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump\u2019s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, bringing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[61,112,1783,1790,38,594,895,618,2240,50,6529,8,19,3913,3912,621,4802,3914,3917,762,9,735,67,8217,12306,472,7,2631,54,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-28409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-dc-wire","11":"tag-district-of-columbia","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-economic-policy","14":"tag-economy","15":"tag-elizabeth-warren","16":"tag-federal-reserve-system","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-government-appointments-and-nominations","19":"tag-headlines","20":"tag-iran","21":"tag-jeanine-pirro","22":"tag-jerome-powell","23":"tag-john-thune","24":"tag-kevin-hassett","25":"tag-kevin-warsh","26":"tag-lisa-cook","27":"tag-nc-state-wire","28":"tag-news","29":"tag-north-carolina","30":"tag-politics","31":"tag-spacex","32":"tag-stephen-miran","33":"tag-thom-tillis","34":"tag-top-stories","35":"tag-u-s-department-of-justice","36":"tag-u-s-news","37":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116569709072011119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}