Trump plans to nominate Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair; confirmation pending

On Friday, President Trump announced he planned to nominate Kevin M. Warsh, 55, to serve as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, capping a lengthy bake-off to replace Jerome H. Powell, whose term as Fed chair concludes in May. Mr. Warsh is known as a consensus builder, skills he will need if he is to head the Federal Reserve when President Trump is demanding rock-bottom rates.

Mr. Warsh is a former Fed governor (2006–2011) and served in the George W. Bush administration. He studied public policy at Stanford, graduated from Harvard Law in 1995, worked in Morgan Stanley’s mergers and acquisitions department, and later worked with the investor Stanley Druckenmiller and as a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

During his earlier Fed tenure he helped broker the sale of Bear Stearns and arrange the federal government’s bailout of American International Group, and colleagues describe him as a skilled communicator and consensus builder. Supporters quoted in the report included John Cogan, Randal Quarles, Carol Tomé and Randall Kroszner, who praised his ability to work the Fed’s processes and build agreement.

Mr. Warsh’s policy record has prompted scrutiny: he warned against cutting rates during the Great Recession but later embraced rate cuts once Mr. Trump returned to office, and he has been a vocal critic of the Fed’s incumbents, saying “the credibility deficit lies with the incumbents that are at the Fed.” Mr.

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