Overview
- Warsh, confirmed Wednesday in a 54–45 vote that Bloomberg called the narrowest ever for a U.S. central bank chief, takes over Friday as Jerome Powell’s chair term ends.
- Powell will stay on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, and the Federal Open Market Committee, not the chair alone, decides interest rates.
- Warsh has signaled plans to shrink the Fed’s bond holdings, rely less on advance guidance, and base decisions on current data, while insisting he will not be a puppet of President Trump.
- The confirmation followed a party-line path after all 13 Republicans and all 11 Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee split, with progress unblocked once the Justice Department closed inquiries related to Powell and Senator Thom Tillis lifted his hold.
- Inflation ran about 3.8% in April after an oil price shock tied to the Iran war, a backdrop that analysts say could restrain rapid rate cuts even as Trump pushes for them.