Warsh Floats Cutting Fed Meetings to 6 Per Year
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- Kevin Warsh is considering whether the Federal Reserve should hold fewer policy meetings each year, per the New York Times citing four people familiar with the matter.
- Bloomberg reported Warsh floated six rate-setting meetings annually plus two meetings focused on broader economic issues.
- The current eight-meeting schedule has stood since the 1980s, and the Federal Reserve Act requires only a minimum of four meetings per year — meaning Warsh could enact a change without congressional approval.
- Any new schedule could be decided before the Fed's September meeting, according to the Times.
- Each scheduled meeting currently triggers weeks of staff analysis, briefing books, and public communications, so fewer meetings would reduce that procedural load.
- The trade-off: if inflation unexpectedly accelerates or the labor market suddenly weakens, the Fed might have to wait longer to act unless it convenes an unscheduled emergency meeting.
- The shift would be consistent with Warsh's chairmanship to date — his communications strategy has been restrained on public policy guidance and in sharing his own views.
Why it matters: This would be the biggest procedural change to Fed rate-setting in decades and ties directly into Warsh's deliberately quiet chairmanship. Fewer routine decision points means less frequent opportunities to adjust policy as data change, raising the odds of an unscheduled emergency meeting if inflation or employment surprise — while also giving markets fewer formal signals to price.
