New Fed chair Warsh just signaled rate cuts are coming #FederalReserve #MoneyTalk

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]By the slimmest margin in history, the Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as the 17th chair of the Federal Reserve this week, >> [music] >> bringing an end to an extremely eventful 8-year run for Jerome Powell. Nominated during President Trump's first term, Powell wasn't willing to acquiesce to executive pressure [music] to lower interest rates. Warsh has said he's in favor of rate cuts, but getting a majority of the Fed's 12 voters to agree is an unlikely task between now and the end of the year. FedWatch has not forecast a likelihood of rate cuts higher than 2.8%.

[00:00:33]Never a dull moment for JPow. Powell leaves with inflation well above his long-stated goal of 2%. It's currently at 3.8%, [music] but he had a tenure like no other previous Fed chair. Powell raised rates four times during 2018, his first year, from 1.25% to 1.50% [music] at the start of the year to 2.25% to 2.50%.

[00:00:59]drew the ire of Trump, who later called his decision to tap Powell over Warsh a really big [music] mistake. While you were baking sourdough bread during COVID, Powell pulled out all the stops [music] to avoid an extended recession.

[00:01:13]The Fed bought debt and made large bond purchases. Powell and the Fed also urged Congress to provide fiscal relief to Americans, such as expanded unemployment benefits. By the end of 2021, unemployment fell back under 4% [music] after reaching nearly 14.8% in 2020. However, that kicked off the worst inflation in decades. Powell deemed it transitory, [music] blaming it on bad forecasts. But critics say the central bank was slow to react to the effects of post-pandemic spending. What's next? Alan Greenspan, who served as Fed chair from 1987 until 2006, ignored calls [music] to raise rates because he believed the personal computing revolution was creating a productivity boom, which would not coincide with inflation. Greenspan was proven right, [music] and Warsh has similar convictions that the explosion of AI could be the foundation for future rate cuts while avoiding inflation.