Political Spotlight Shines on Warsh for His First Fed Meeting as Chairman
Shortly after the Federal Reserve convened its last meeting, President Trump took to social media to mount a familiar line of attack.He demanded lower interest rates, and lashed out at Jerome H.
Powell, then the chair of the central bank — even sharing an edited image Mr.Powell hurtling into a dumpster filled with trash.Mr.
Trump’s unrelenting pressure had little effect on the Fed, which has kept borrowing costs unchanged for months as it tried to tame the fallout from the U.S.war with Iran.
For Mr.Powell, it was the final major act in a tumultuous term in leadership — and for his replacement, Kevin M.
Warsh, it offered a sign of the challenges still to come.As the president’s long-awaited, handpicked Fed chairman, Mr.Warsh must navigate the economic headwinds — and the many political risks — that come with serving in Mr.
Trump’s second term.Like his predecessor, Mr.
Warsh is bound to face the unyielding attention of the man who nominated him, and could similarly find himself on the receiving end of fierce and public pressure to lower rates.In some ways, the task for Mr.Warsh is laid bare by the unusual circumstances in which he inherited the job.Mr.
Trump nominated Mr.Warsh back in January, amid months of unusually aggressive White House attacks on the Fed and its members.
The president openly courted a roster of loyalists at the central bank, and he repeatedly flirted in public with the idea of firing Mr.Powell, despite having elevated him to the job during his first term.At political rallies and on social media, Mr.
Trump savaged Mr.Powell, while the president’s deputies investigated the Fed chair, an inquiry that a judge would later find to be politically motivated.
And Mr.Powell was not alone: Mr.
Trump also tried to oust another Fed member, Lisa D.Cook, in a case that would eventually reach the Supreme Court.
(The justices could render a verdict in that case as soon as this week.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content....