U. S. President Donald Trump has announced he will nominate Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor, to be the Fed Chair in May, seeking to lower U. S. interest rates. Warsh, 55, was the youngest member of the Fed when he joined in 2006 at age 35. He played a significant role during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, helping to manage bailouts and gaining a reputation as a knowledgeable figure on Wall Street. Despite his warnings about inflation from government rescues, economists later suggested that more stimulus could have led to a quicker recovery.
Warsh is married to Jane Lauder, a cosmetics heiress with a net worth of about $2.7 billion. They actively support pet wellness initiatives, and Lauder’s firm recently funded a British dog food brand. Warsh has a strong educational background with degrees from Stanford University and Harvard Law School, and he worked in mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley before joining the Fed. After leaving the Fed in 2011, he became affiliated with Stanford’s Hoover Institution and worked for billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller.
Warsh has connections with influential figures, including his father-in-law, billionaire Ron Lauder, who has ties to Trump and interests in Ukraine and Greenland. Warsh has agreed with Trump on lowering interest rates, believing that productivity improvements, particularly from AI, can help manage prices. However, he has historically shown a hawkish stance on inflation and expressed concerns about the Fed’s large-scale bond holdings.
Warsh advocates for the Fed’s independence but has criticized its focus on policy tools that may overstep its fundamental goals of price stability and employment. He has called for a shift away from data-driven policies that rely on past performance and has pointed out that expanding the Fed’s balance sheet could conflict with lowering policy rates. He commented, “If the printing press could be quiet, we could have lower policy rates. “
With information from Reuters
