By Nick Timiraos
Kevin Warsh largely stuck to points he has made repeatedly over the last several years in laying his case for a "reform" agenda at the Fed-replacing the models the central bank uses to forecast inflation, paring back its public communications, and, over time, shrinking its $6.7 trillion balance sheet.
Despite tough questions from Democrats and a mostly friendly reception from Republicans, not much changed. Warsh's confirmation isn't a matter of whether he has the votes: it's about who blinks first on the criminal probe of the Fed's construction project-President Trump or Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.).
A few things stood out over 21/2 hours of testimony:
-- Warsh avoided every invitation to put distance between himself and Trump. Asked to name one aspect of Trump's economic agenda he disagreed with, the best he could offer was that he disagreed with Trump's description of him as "out of central casting." He joked that he'd look older and grayer if he were from central casting. It played for a laugh, and maybe a few eyerolls, in the room.
-- He pledged commitment to an independent Fed but sidestepped the thorniest tests. "Fed independence means everything to me," he said. Warsh cited pending litigation to avoid taking a position on Trump's effort to fire Gov. Lisa Cook or on the criminal probe of the Fed's construction project.
-- Warsh's independence argument will land uncomfortably inside the Fed. When he did engage, it was largely to argue that the Fed's recent troubles are of its own making. The institution has "wandered outside of its remit," he said during testimony that repeatedly dinged the tenure of the current chair, Jerome Powell. His future colleagues generally think highly of Powell and have spent months publicly defending the Fed against exactly the kind of external pressure he declined to criticize. His stance fell flat with Democrats. "You're the leader. You establish the moral and ethical standards," Sen. Jack Reed (D., R.I.) said. "And you just pass it off to, 'Well, it's not my job. It's everybody's job.' That means it's nobody's job."
-- He didn't call for cuts, but he didn't undermine the case for them either. He argued the Fed should focus on underlying inflation and pointed to "trimmed-mean" measures that strip out outliers and show that inflation has been running closer to the Fed's 2% target. He also disputed the view, held by several current Fed officials, that tariffs are driving up recent measures of inflation. But he didn't declare victory: "The trajectory of inflation is improving but there's more work to do."
Whether any of it matters could hinge on whether Trump was pleased enough with Warsh's performance to drop the criminal probe of Jerome Powell that is holding up a vote on his nomination.
This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 21, 2026 13:34 ET (17:34 GMT)
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