Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the US central bank, said the Federal Reserve needed a new framework for dealing with persistent inflation, without offering more specifics.
Early in his testimony, Warsh blamed the Fed for allowing inflation to surge following the Covid-19 pandemic, and said high prices remain a problem for Americans.
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“While it’s true that inflation is less problematic, meaning the rate of change in prices is less severe than it was some years ago, hard working Americans are no doubt feeling it,” Warsh said Tuesday in a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee. “I think that means a regime change in the conduct of policy. I think that means a different, new inflation framework.”
Warsh didn’t say what that meant for interest rates.
Trump has placed continuous pressure on the Fed to lower interest rates since his re-election. As recently as Tuesday morning, he said he’d be disappointed if Warsh didn’t cut rates as soon as he took office. He was asked about that pressure and how he would handle it by Democratic Senator Jack Reed.
“Presidents tend to be for cutting rates. I think the difference is, President Trump expresses it quite publicly,” he said, adding, “Independence is up to the Fed. Fed leadership has to make a decision about what’s the right thing to do.”
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Asked by Senator Elizabeth Warren whether Trump had lost the 2020 presidential election, Warsh demurred, saying Congress had certified Joe Biden as president after that vote.
Warsh also emphasized he would sell any undisclosed assets before being sworn in as Fed chair.
Warsh and his wife, Jane Lauder, reported assets worth at least $192 million in financial disclosures filed as part of his nomination. But his total net worth is likely much larger and makes him one of the wealthiest Fed officials in the central bank’s history.
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