A prepared opening statement was obtained by POLITICO<\/a>Says monetary policymakers should make decisions based on “analytical rigor, meaningful deliberations and clear decision-making.” But he also suggested that President Donald Trump’s stubborn appeal for low interest rates poses no threat to the Fed’s independence.<\/p>\nWarsh would say, “I don’t think the operational independence of monetary policy is particularly threatened when elected officials \u2013 the President, senators or House members \u2013 express their views on interest rates.” \u201cCentral bankers need to be strong enough to listen to a variety of views from all corners.\u201d<\/p>\n
The durability of the Fed’s insulation from short-term political pressures will be a central topic at Warsh’s hearing on Tuesday. Trump has consistently pushed for rate cuts and even threatened to fire Powell if he did not lower rates further.<\/p>\n
In a subtle pushback against the idea that he would cut rates under any circumstances, Wersch would also underline his commitment to keeping inflation under control, saying that price stability is a mandate for the Fed “without excuse or equivocation, argument or pain.”<\/p>\n
\u201cInflation is a choice and the Fed must take responsibility for it,\u201d according to his prepared statement. “Low inflation is the Fed’s conspiracy shield, its vital protection (against) slings and arrows. So, when inflation rises \u2013 as it has in recent years \u2013 our citizens suffer serious harm, especially the least affluent.”<\/p>\n
Warsh’s statement said the level of deference given by the Fed on monetary policy does not apply to other areas, such as bank regulation, international finance and “the management of public funds.” And he argues that the Fed needs to “stay in its lane” and not get involved in fiscal and social policies outside its statutory authority.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn short, I believe monetary policy independence is earned \u2013 and better policy decisions are made \u2013 by removing distractions,\u201d Warsh will say. “I am committed to ensuring that the conduct of monetary policy remains strictly independent. I am equally committed to working with the Administration and Congress on non-monetary matters that are part of the Fed’s jurisdiction. And I am committed to accountability in all of the Fed’s actions.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Wersh will tell lawmakers at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that the central bank’s autonomy to set interest rates is essential but it always needs to be earned. Warsash, in A. A prepared opening statement was obtained by POLITICOSays monetary policymakers should make decisions based on “analytical rigor, meaningful deliberations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[7304,21160,2406,16285,20874,1246,23703,3082],"class_list":{"0":"post-82440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-verse","8":"tag-chair","9":"tag-commits","10":"tag-fed","11":"tag-independent","12":"tag-nominee","13":"tag-rates","14":"tag-strictly","15":"tag-warsh"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82448,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82440\/revisions\/82448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}