Fed’s Warsh taps economists and bankers to oversee U.S. central bank task forces
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- Kevin Warsh appointed 15 economists, former central bankers, and outside experts to oversee five independent task forces covering data, inflation, productivity/jobs, communications, and balance-sheet management, the Fed said Thursday.
- Harvard's Raj Chetty will lead the data panel, famed tech investor Marc Andreessen is a co-lead on the productivity/jobs group, and former Bush-era Council of Economic Advisers chair Greg Mankiw will co-lead the inflation task force.
- Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent (NYU) was also tapped for the inflation panel, alongside former heads of the central banks of Brazil, England, and India — a roster Warsh described as spanning "the best minds from a range of disciplines."
- Each task force "will operate independently, with a mandate to follow the evidence" and produce findings for the Federal Open Market Committee, contrasting with recent Fed reviews that were driven more by internal analysis.
- Warsh said he hoped to receive recommendations by the end of the year; as a former Fed governor (2006–2011), he had grown critical of the bank's large balance sheet and its reliance on lagging data before his nomination by President Donald Trump.
- The process leaves unclear what role the Fed's seven governors and 12 regional Reserve Bank presidents will play, with any fundamental change likely still requiring broad consensus among Warsh's FOMC colleagues.
Why it matters: Warsh handed reviews of the Fed's balance sheet, inflation framework, and data methods to ideologically diverse outsiders rather than staff — a process whose recommendations, expected by year-end, would still need buy-in from the Fed's seven governors and 12 regional bank presidents to take effect across trillions in holdings.
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