After months of teasing, President Trump announced Friday morning that he would pick Kevin Warsh to replace current Fed Chair Jerome Powell when his term expires in May. Leaks from journalists Thursday evening had already tipped off prediction markets, which had Warsh’s odds at around 91% right before the announcement.
Warsh, 55, is a somewhat surprising choice by Trump. For one, the two disagree fundamentally on monetary policy. The former Fed governor is a known inflation hawk who famously resigned from his post in 2011 out of concern that the Fed was pumping too much money into the system. He’s a classic “hard-money guy” who favors a strong dollar and a tight balance sheet.
