There’s an excellent chance that the next head of the Federal Reserve will be somebody named Kevin.
Fed watchers had been thinking the front-runner was Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council. But Friday President Trump threw everyone a curveball and told the Wall Street Journal that Kevin Warsh of Stanford was at the top of his list, though Hassett was still a contender.
Warsh is the Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Economics at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and Dean’s Visiting Scholar at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He received his bachelor’s from Stanford University and a law degree from Harvard Law School. At Stanford, he studied public policy, with an emphasis on economics and statistics.
Warsh, a former economic adviser in the George W. Bush administration who previously worked on Wall Street, served as a Fed governor from 2006-2011.
Warsh received an important endorsement from the nation’s top banker, Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon.
Trump is frustrated with the current Fed chair, Jerome Powell, who has kept interest rates higher than in most other industrial countries. Trump says the high rates have stifled growth.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump had a 45-minute meeting with Warsh and believes he would reduce rates. Lower rates would allow for more business expansion and reduce the costs of financing $30 trillion in government debt.
Who will Trump pick — Warsh or Hassett? “I think you have Kevin and Kevin. They’re both — I think the two Kevins are great,” Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in the Oval Office.
$38 trillion @ 4% or $48 trillion @ 3%? The answer is so simple, easy, and obvious, it’s a no-brainer.