WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate is expected this week to confirm Kevin Warsh as the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve, with lawmakers praising his "unprecedented qualifications" for managing the nation's monetary policy — chief among them, a personal net worth so substantial that price increases have simply never registered as a problem.
Warsh, a former Fed governor and Hoover Institution fellow whose disclosed assets Morningstar estimates at between $131 million and $226 million, is positioned to be sworn in ahead of outgoing Chairman Jerome Powell's term expiring Friday, May 15. He would become the wealthiest person ever to hold the post, a distinction senators on both sides of the aisle have called "frankly reassuring."
"When Kevin goes to the grocery store, he doesn't notice that eggs cost $7.49," said Sen. Richard Blaine (R-TX) during floor remarks Tuesday. "That's the kind of psychological stability we need at the Fed. You can't flinch at inflation if inflation has never, not once in your adult life, caused you to reconsider a purchase."
Blaine added that Warsh's background gave him "a real feel for the American consumer" — specifically, what happens when the American consumer stops being a problem for the American economy.
Warsh, 56, previously served on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011, where he was widely credited with having opinions during the 2008 financial crisis. Since then, he has built a career in private equity, advisory work, and the quiet accumulation of wealth at a pace that monetary policy cannot meaningfully threaten.
"His lived experience is the experience of money continuing to work normally," said Dr. Patricia Aldrich, a senior fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Serenity, a Washington think tank. "Most Fed chairs understand inflation conceptually. Kevin understands non-inflation viscerally. It's a different kind of knowledge."
A Morningstar analysis published Monday confirmed Warsh will surpass all previous Fed chairs in personal net worth, a record that analysts say underscores his "alignment with the asset-holding class" that monetary policy is, historically, most careful not to inconvenience.
In interviews conducted across three states this week, ordinary Americans expressed varying degrees of relief.
"I feel like he gets it," said Dale Fromme, 54, a warehouse shift supervisor in Akron, Ohio, who has seen his grocery bill climb 34 percent since 2021. "Not my 'it,' obviously. But somebody's 'it.' The it of people who have a lot of money. And those people run things, so."
A new Meridian Research poll found that 61 percent of Americans "trust" or "somewhat trust" a Federal Reserve chairman who "has never personally experienced the psychological weight of a declined credit card," compared with just 38 percent who preferred a chairman who "shops at the same places they do." The remaining 1 percent responded "what is the Federal Reserve," which Meridian flagged as a separate and more urgent crisis.
"People want someone steady," said Fromme. "Like, steady in the way that only having, what, a hundred and fifty million dollars makes you steady."
The confirmation vote follows two days of hearings in which Warsh testified about his vision for price stability, interest rate policy, and what he called "the importance of credibility." He declined to specify whose credibility, or credible to whom, but senators described the remarks as "very credible."
Sen. Donna Farwell (D-MA), who has indicated she will vote in favor, issued a statement praising Warsh's "deep understanding of economic forces that affect households across America, particularly households in Greenwich, Aspen, and the better parts of Palm Beach."
Sen. Marcus Guillory (R-LA), chair of the Banking Committee, went further: "Jerome Powell did a fine job, but his net worth was, what, twenty million? Fifty? The point is, you can't truly understand price pressure until price pressure has become, for you, a purely academic exercise. Kevin is there. Kevin has been there for decades."
Warsh himself remained characteristically measured. Asked by reporters whether he understood the financial pressures facing working Americans, he paused, smiled, and said: "Absolutely. I've read extensively about them."
Warsh is expected to begin his term on May 16, following Powell's final day Friday. His priorities, according to transition advisors, include "restoring Fed credibility," "reassessing the pace of rate decisions," and "ensuring the institution's independence" — a term that, in context, senators described as meaning "independent from political pressure, but appropriately sensitive to the concerns of people with significant bond portfolios."
Markets responded positively to the confirmation news. The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent. Egg prices did not move.
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