Newly nominated FED chair

New Republic - Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego should be commended for some excellent fact-checking of Trump crony Kevin Warsh on Tuesday.

Warsh is Trump’s pick to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve after Jerome Powell’s term expires in May. During Warsh’s Senate committee confirmation hearing, Gallego tried to suss out whether Warsh was going to put the president’s political interests ahead of the country’s economic health.

“Earlier today, you said to Senator [John] Kennedy that President Trump never demanded you to cut interest rates in your job interview. Is that your sworn testimony?” Gallego asked.

“That is, Senator,” Warsh said.

“Well, someone here is lying, then,” Gallego replied. “It’s either you or President Trump. Because in an interview with The Wall Street Journal of December 12, President Trump confirmed he pressed you on your commitment to support interest rate cuts.”

Gallego helpfully cited the Journal article for Warsh: “During a 45-minute meeting … the president pressed Warsh on whether he could trust him to support interest-rate cuts if he were chosen to lead the central bank, according to people familiar with the meeting. Trump, in the Journal interview, confirmed that reporting.”

Warsh responded by claiming the reporters who wrote the story—Meridith McGraw, Nick Timiraos, and Brian Schwartz—were fibbing:

“Senator, there’s, of course, a third alternative. You cite a couple of reporters for a leading financial newspaper.… I think those reporters either need better sources, or better journalistic standards.”

MS Now - There was one question hanging over the room during Tuesday’s meeting of the Senate Banking Committee. According to the hearing schedule, the gathered senators were there to adjudicate Kevin Warsh’s nomination to become the next chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Matters of monetary policy were discussed, but the focus would inevitably return to whether Warsh, if confirmed, would stand up to President Donald Trump and ensure the independence of the Fed from political pressure.

 

It’s an issue that barely came up in the most recent confirmation hearings for a new chair, nine years ago. The good news is that Warsh was adamant about having no interest in merely doing Trump’s bidding as chair. “I do not believe that independence of monetary policy is threatened when elected officials state their views on rates,” Warsh declared in his opening remarks. “Fed independence is up to the Fed.”

 

Much more troubling, however, was Warsh’s response to a simple question from the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.: “Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?” It is not the sort of complicated economic issue that he’d expect to oversee, though it still had a simple factual answer. And his response wasn’t encouraging given the pressure Trump has placed on Warsh’s predecessor and the current Fed Chair Jerome Powell. More