Donald Trump says he will nominate former Fed governor Kevin Warsh as chairperson in May, underscoring his push for lower US interest rates. Warsh, the Fed’s youngest-ever governor and a key figure during the 2008 crisis, is a well-connected Wall Street insider married to cosmetics heiress Jane Lauder. US President Donald Trump has said he will nominate former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh as Fed Chairperson in May this year, as the president continues his campaign for lower US interest rates.
Warsh, 55, joined the Fed Board of Governors in 2006 at age 35 as its youngest member after serving on former president George W Bush’s National Economic Council. He remained at the Fed until 2011, playing a key role during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis to help then-chairperson Ben Bernanke engineer bailouts of failing financial institutions and financial market backstops. With his connections on Wall Street, he earned a reputation as the Fed’s financial market “whisperer”.
Warsh repeatedly warned that government rescues would jack up inflation, a threat that did not materialise. In fact, economists later said larger fiscal stimulus outlays after the crisis could have fuelled a stronger recovery sooner. Trump, always concerned with the appearance of his officials, especially on TV, on Friday called Warsh “central casting” for a Fed chair.
Read Full Article on Daily Maverick
[paywall]
Warsh’s wife is cosmetics heiress Jane Lauder, whose net worth is estimated at R43.41-billion ($2.7bn) by Forbes. She previously served in various management roles at the family company founded by her grandmother, Estée Lauder, running the firm’s Clinique brand but stepping down as executive vice-president in 2024. Jane Lauder and Warsh invest time and money into improving pet wellness and longevity.
In October, Lauder’s investment firm, TAW Ventures,named for their pet goldendoodle dog, Thaddeus Alistair Warsh – led a R54.66-million funding round for the British fresh dog food brand Marleybones, which offers meals named Boss Beef, Chic Chicken, Lush Lamb and Sassy Salmon. Warsh, a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, started his career in the 1990s working in mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley. After leaving the Fed in 2011, he joined Stanford University’s conservative Hoover Institution and has lectured at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
At about the same time, he also began working for billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller as a partner at the investor’s Duquesne Family Office, helping to manage his fortune estimated at as much as R177-billion. Druckenmiller in the 1990s worked alongside Scott Bessent, now US Treasury Secretary, to make a profit of more than R16.08-billion for investor George Soros by betting against the British pound. Warsh’s father-in-law, billionaire Ron Lauder, is a former classmate and longtime backer of Trump who is reportedly part of a US-linked investor group that won backing to develop Ukraine’s lithium deposits.
He also has interests in Greenland. Former US national security adviser John Bolton has said it was Lauder who first sparked Trump’s interest in Greenland, a drive for US control that has created major tensions with Europe in recent weeks. Warsh has publicly agreed with Trump that the Fed should sharply lower interest rates, arguing that productivity gains, particularly from AI, will help keep prices in check and that the central bank does not have to make a “cruel choice” to sacrifice the job market for lower inflation.
[/paywall]
