Fed nominee Kevin Warsh to face Senate grilling over independence, interest rates at Tuesday confirmation hearing

Kevin Warsh, President Trump’s pick to lead the Fed, is expected to face a heated grilling over his commitment to independence and whether he plans to slash interest rates during Tuesday’s Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing.The former Fed governor – a longtime inflation hawk who has pivoted to support the Trump administration’s call for lower rates – has been in limbo as Sen.Thom Tillis (R-NC) has vowed to block his nomination, meaning the committee is poised to be deadlocked in a 12-12 vote.Tillis isn’t the only voting member that Warsh needs to win over, as the committee’s main line of questioning will likely center around whether the 56-year-old financier – who would be the richest Fed chair in history – is committed to the central bank’s independence.In remarks to be delivered Tuesday, Warsh emphasized the need for independence while also arguing the Fed “must stay in its lane” and not stray “into fiscal and social policies where it has neither authority nor expertise” – a nod to issues like climate change and social inequality.His speech, posted online Monday, does not aim to dissuade elected officials like Trump from chiming in on interest rates.

In it, Warsh maintains that policy decisions must be based on “analytic rigor, meaningful deliberation and unclouded decision-making.”“He’s going to get a very friendly reception from Republicans and a very unfriendly reception from the Democrats,” Ethan Harris, former head of global economic research at Bank of America, told The Post.“He’s been a huge critic of the Fed and a huge supporter of the Trump administration.There’s going to be a lot of political positioning around his confirmation.”Warsh has blasted current Fed officials, comparing them to “pampered princes” and accusing them of “groupthink.”There’s also a “concern he’d be beholden to the president,” Harris said, since Trump has repeatedly called for interest rates as low as 1% –...