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.
This is a preview of Hayes Brown’s latest column. Read the full column here.
