Kevin Warsh, the candidate for the presidency of the United States central bank (Fed), tried on Tuesday, April 21, to convince American senators of his independence from Donald Trump. Democratic opposition accuses him of being “the president’s puppet,” according to senator Elizabeth Warren. But the 56-year-old financier, who could succeed Jerome Powell in a month, stated that he absolutely will not be.
Democratic opposition has already announced that they will not vote for him, even though he stated that he wants to be an “independent actor” of the United States central bank, as reported by Libération. It is considered the most powerful bank in the world. Its president is appointed for four years. This year, tensions between democrats and within the presidential camp cast doubt on the name of the successor.
Decrease in Interest Rates by 1%
The issue of independence was at the heart of the debates, as shortly before, Donald Trump had said on CNBC that he would be disappointed if Kevin Warsh, as president of the Fed, did not lower interest rates. For several months, the president of the United States has believed that the central bank should have lowered interest rates to 1% to support his economic policy against the current 3.5% to 3.75%, as reported by Les Echos.
During the hearing, Kevin Warsh responded that “the president has never asked me to commit to a particular decision on interest rates” and that “the Fed must stay in its lane. Its independence is strongly threatened when it gets lost in questions of fiscal or social policies, where it has neither authority nor expertise.” However, he refused to say whether he shared the American president’s opinion.
