Kevin Warsh

Warsh was born in Albany, New York. He received an AB from Stanford University in 1992 and a JD from Harvard Law School in 1995.⁠[1][2]

From 1995 to 2002, Warsh worked in the mergers and acquisitions department of Morgan Stanley in New York, serving as vice president and executive director.⁠[2][1]

From 2002 to 2006, Warsh served in the George W. Bush administration as special assistant to the president for economic policy and executive secretary of the White House National Economic Council; during that time he was also a member of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.⁠[2]

On January 27, 2006, President Bush announced his intention to nominate Warsh as a Federal Reserve governor, and the Senate confirmed him on February 17. On February 24, Vice President Dick Cheney administered the oath of office to Warsh in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building; he filled a vacant seat with a term expiring January 31, 2018.⁠[3][3]

On March 23, 2006, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke presided over a formal swearing-in ceremony for Warsh and Randall S. Kroszner in the atrium of the Board’s main building. When nominating Warsh as chairman in 2026, President Trump said he had become the youngest Fed governor ever, at 35.⁠[4][4][5]

As a governor, Warsh focused mainly on financial markets and the conduct of monetary policy; he served as the Federal Reserve’s representative to the Group of Twenty (G-20) and the Board’s emissary to the emerging and advanced economies in Asia, and as Administrative Governor, managing the Board’s operations, personnel, and financial performance.⁠[1][1]

On April 6, 2009, speaking at the Council of Institutional Investors spring meeting, Warsh said the period before and during the recession should equally be considered a panic, and that “the Panic of 2008” was a more revealing description of the economic and financial travails than “recession”; he added that panics end and that this one was showing meaningful signs of abating.⁠[6][6][6]

On March 26, 2010, Warsh gave a speech titled “An Ode to Independence” at the Shadow Open Market Committee, saying that “Central bank independence is precious” and that ensuring Fed independence is the cornerstone of institutional credibility; he also argued that independence is something to demonstrate, not principally to declare.⁠[7][7][7]

On November 3, 2010, the Federal Open Market Committee decided to expand its securities holdings, planning to purchase a further $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011; Warsh was among those voting in favor.⁠[8][8][8]

On November 8, speaking at the annual meeting of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, Warsh said he rejected the idea of an economic “new normal”; he said he was less optimistic than some that additional asset purchases would bring significant, durable benefits to the real economy, and that expanding the Fed’s balance sheet “is not a free option.”⁠[9][9][9]

On February 10, 2011, Warsh submitted his letter of resignation to President Obama, announcing that he would leave the Federal Reserve Board on or around March 31, 2011. Bernanke said Warsh’s intimate knowledge of financial markets and institutions had proved invaluable during the crisis.⁠[1][1][1]

After leaving the Board, Warsh served from 2011 to 2026 as the Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Economics at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and as a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was also a partner of investor Stanley Druckenmiller at Duquesne Family Office.⁠[10][2][5]

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney asked Warsh to review the transparency practices of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee. On December 11, 2014, the Bank of England published his independent report and at the same time announced a series of transparency, accountability, and governance reforms.⁠[11][12][12]

The report recommended reforms in five areas, including publishing the policy decision and rationale as soon as practicable after the meeting, reducing the number of policy meetings from twelve to eight a year, and making Day 2 meeting transcripts public after a deferral period of five to ten years.⁠[11][11][11][11]

On January 30, 2026, President Trump announced that he was nominating Warsh as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, listing in his statement Warsh’s positions at the Hoover Institution, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Duquesne Family Office; on March 4, Trump formally submitted the nomination.⁠[5][13]

On April 21, 2026, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held a hearing on Warsh’s nomination as a member and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board; on April 29, the committee met in executive session to vote on the nomination.⁠[14][14][15][15]

On May 12, 2026, the Senate voted 51–45 to confirm Warsh as a member of the Federal Reserve Board for a fourteen-year term from February 1, 2026, and by the same margin invoked cloture on his nomination as chairman. On May 13, the Senate confirmed him as chairman for a four-year term by a vote of 54–45, with one senator not voting; Democratic Senator John Fetterman voted in favor.⁠[16][16][17][18]

On May 15, as Jerome H. Powell’s term as chair concluded with Warsh not yet sworn in, the Federal Reserve Board named Powell chair pro tempore until Warsh took the oath of office.⁠[19][19]

On May 22, 2026, Warsh took the oath of office as Chairman and a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Open Market Committee unanimously selected him as its chairman the same day. His term as chairman ends on May 21, 2030, and his term as a Board member ends on January 31, 2040.⁠[13][13]

On June 17, 2026, the first Federal Open Market Committee meeting chaired by Warsh concluded, with the Committee voting 12–0 to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.5 to 3.75 percent and reaffirming that the Committee would deliver price stability.⁠[20][21][21]

On July 9, 2026, the Federal Reserve announced the leadership and objectives of five monetary policy task forces, covering communications, balance sheet policy, data, productivity and jobs (including the economic impact of artificial intelligence), and inflation frameworks; they are co-led by external advisers, supported by Federal Reserve staff, and report their findings to the Federal Open Market Committee.⁠[22][22][22]

The task force leaders include former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry cofounder Marc AndreessenMarc AndreessenMarc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist, a co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). While in college he helped develop the graphical web browser Mosaic, then co-founded Netscape and Loudcloud (later renamed Opsware), and has long served as a director of Meta; he has also published essays such as “Why Software Is Eating the World.”Open the full entry, and Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent. Warsh said the U.S. economy had changed significantly over the last generation, “and never more so than right now.”⁠[22][22][22][22][22]

On July 14, 2026, Warsh gave his first semiannual monetary policy testimony as chairman before the House Financial Services Committee, submitting identical remarks to the Senate Banking Committee on July 15. He said, “Today we are at a hinge point in history,” and that the Fed’s number one objective is to get monetary policy right.⁠[20][20][20]

In the testimony, Warsh said the most striking feature of the economy was business investment, driven largely by the construction of data centers and the immense demand for AI-related equipment and software; he also said the members of the Federal Open Market Committee have “no tolerance” for persistently elevated inflation.⁠[20][20][20]

On July 29, 2026, the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9–3 to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 3.5 to 3.75 percent; Beth M. Hammack, Neel Kashkari, and Lorie K. Logan dissented, preferring a 0.25 percentage point increase.⁠[23][23]

On August 28, 2026, around his 100th day as chairman, Warsh delivered the keynote address at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He said artificial intelligence may become a new factor of production with consequences for both the economy and monetary policy, and that he had set out to change the form and function of the Fed Chairman’s so-called forward guidance, a crisis-era practice that he said “has overstayed its welcome.”⁠[24][24][24][24]

He set out principles to guide monetary policy, including that the 2 percent inflation objective, measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index, is “a firm, fixed target,” that short-term interest rates are the predominant tool for the dual mandate, that money still matters, and that “a quieter Fed” is better able to meet its objectives; he also said the Fed’s predominant focus at the time should be on prices.⁠[24][24][24][24][24]

On September 16, 2026, the Federal Open Market Committee voted 12–0 to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 0.25 percentage point to 3.75 to 4 percent, to support a timelier return of inflation to the 2 percent goal.⁠[25][25]

The 2026 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group took place in Bangkok, Thailand, from October 12 to 18. The Federal Reserve calendar scheduled Warsh for a fireside chat in Bangkok with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at 11:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on October 15, 2026.⁠[26][27]

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System: Official website: https://www.federalreserve.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

Hoover Institution: Official website: https://www.hoover.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]