By Caitlin Ostroff and Nick Timiraos
Sixteen years ago, Kevin Warsh stood before a group of economists in New York City and delivered a speech titled "An Ode to Independence."
It was 2010, and the central bank had been drawn into propping up the economy after the greatest financial crisis in generations. Warsh worried that the more the Fed stepped in, the easier it would become for elected officials to avoid making difficult economic choices of their own.
"Central bank independence is precious. It can be taken for granted in benign times, but it is tested when times get tough," Warsh said at the time.
Warsh resigned from the Fed the following year and, since then, he has been critical of the central bank's actions. Last year, before President Trump nominated him to be the next Fed chair, the former central banker said that the Fed and the government needed to be more aligned.
To understand how Warsh's positions on Washington's relationship with the Fed have evolved, The Wall Street Journal reviewed all readily available statements -- almost 150 of his speeches, testimonies and columns -- from 2006 to 2026. The Journal reviewed official statements, including Fed speeches and minutes, as well as remarks to media available online, including Bloomberg TV, CNBC, Fox Business and other outlets.
The inside skeptic
Warsh joined the Fed in 2006, after time in the Bush administration and at Morgan Stanley. He was the youngest Fed governor in history. On a board typically dominated by Ph.D. economists, Warsh brought a different skill set: deep relationships on Wall Street and Capitol Hill.
During the 2008-09 financial crisis, the Fed embarked on a new program of bond buying. Its balance sheet swelled. Warsh grew concerned that the central bank was doing too much to cushion the economy and risked becoming an instrument of politicians.
The outside critic
In March 2011, Warsh stepped down from the Fed. From the outside, he continued pressing some of the same arguments, but with more pointed language and fewer institutional constraints on what he could say publicly.
In 2017, Trump interviewed Warsh for the Fed chair job before ultimately picking Jerome Powell. But the president quickly soured on his choice. Trump wanted lower rates; the central bank continued to raise them.
Warsh echoed some of Trump's criticism in more measured terms. Notably, he argued in late 2018 that the Fed should stop its "double-barreled blitz" of raising interest rates and reducing its asset holdings, a position that was vindicated weeks later when the Fed reversed course.
In 2021, President Joe Biden reappointed Powell to a second term as Fed chair.
Back in the running
By early 2025, Trump was back in the White House and again advocating for lower rates. Fed officials suggested that Trump's aggressive new tariff policies might constrain their ability to cut.
Warsh saw it differently: If the Fed had maintained its credibility, tariff-driven price increases wouldn't become embedded in the economy. The real problem, he said, wasn't the president's policies -- it was the Fed's own record.
About to take charge
Trump announced in January that he had chosen Warsh as the next Fed chair.
At his confirmation hearing in April, Warsh repeatedly said that Trump hadn't pressured him to commit to lowering rates and that he wouldn't agree if such a demand were made.
Warsh sidestepped the sharpest questions about independence. He cited pending litigation to avoid taking a position on Trump's effort to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook or on the criminal probe, now halted, of Powell and the Fed's construction project.
The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Warsh as the next Fed chair along a party-line vote, 54 to 45.
Write to Caitlin Ostroff at caitlin.ostroff@wsj.com and Nick Timiraos at Nick.Timiraos@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 14, 2026 11:45 ET (15:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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