Overview
- Jerome Powell, who disclosed Wednesday at his final press conference that he will stay on as a governor after May 15, keeps a full vote on interest-rate decisions through his term that runs to January 2028.
- The Senate Banking Committee advanced Kevin Warsh’s nomination on a 13–11 party-line vote, and a full Senate decision is expected in mid-May.
- The Justice Department’s criminal inquiry tied to the Fed’s headquarters renovation has been put on hold with the option to restart, and Powell cited that legal pressure as the reason he will not step away now.
- The latest Fed meeting produced four dissents, the most since 1992, signaling a split over the policy path and making rapid rate cuts harder for an incoming chair to push through.
- Powell says he will keep a low profile and not act as a “shadow chair,” yet his rare choice to remain on the board—the first since 1948—could steady policy and slow abrupt shifts that would affect household borrowing costs.