Kevin Warsh
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Kevin Maxwell Warsh, born April 13, 1970, is an American financier and bank executive, notable for his tenure on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011. During the tumultuous 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, Warsh served as the central bank's key liaison to Wall Street, representing the Federal Reserve within the G20 and acting as the Board's emissary to Asian economies. Prior to this, he held the position of Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Executive Secretary of the White House National Economic Council under President George W. Bush.
Currently, Warsh contributes his expertise as the Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Economics at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He also serves as a scholar and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, is a member of the Group of Thirty, a member of the Panel of Economic Advisers for the Congressional Budget Office, and a former steering committee member of the Bilderberg Group. His extensive work includes research in economics and finance, alongside advisory roles for numerous private and public companies.
Warsh has frequently been identified as a leading candidate for significant U.S. government economic positions, including Secretary of the Treasury. In June 2025, he was reported as a top contender, alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, to succeed Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. This culminated on January 30, 2026, when President Trump officially nominated Warsh for the role.
Born in Albany, New York, Kevin Warsh is the youngest of three children. Raised in Loudonville, New York, he graduated from Shaker High School, crediting his upstate upbringing with instilling in him a deep understanding of the "real economy." He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Stanford University in 1992, with a focus on economics and political science. He then graduated cum laude with a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1995, and further honed his knowledge with coursework in market economics and debt capital markets at MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Business School.
Warsh's career began at Morgan Stanley in New York City, where from 1995 to 2002, he rose to the position of Executive Director in the Mergers and Acquisitions department. From 2002 to 2006, he served President George W. Bush as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Executive Secretary of the National Economic Council, focusing on domestic finance, banking and securities regulatory policy, and consumer protection. He advised the President and senior officials on U.S. economic matters, particularly capital market flows, securities, banking, and insurance. Warsh was an active participant in the President's Working Group on Financial Markets and served as the administration's primary liaison to independent financial regulatory agencies.
His nomination to the Federal Reserve Board in January 2006, alongside Randall Kroszner, generated some criticism due to his age and perceived inexperience. At 35, Warsh was the youngest appointee in the Federal Reserve's history. Despite concerns, such as those voiced by former Fed Vice Chairman Preston Martin, Ben Bernanke acknowledged Warsh's "political and markets savvy and many contacts on Wall Street" as invaluable. Warsh took office on February 24, 2006, to fill an unexpired term.
His first Federal Open Market Committee meeting was in March 2006. In March 2007, less than a year before the Bear Stearns rescue, Governor Warsh spoke about market liquidity, noting that while its benefits are substantial, markets can become illiquid due to increased risk aversion and uncertainty. He emphasized the humility required in predicting financial distress.
Warsh played a pivotal role during the 2008 financial crisis. David Wessel described him as the "chairman's protector in Republican circles and Bernanke's bridge to Wall Street chief executives." Bernanke himself cited Warsh, along with Don Kohn, as crucial companions on the endless conference calls shaping their crisis-fighting strategy. During the crisis, Warsh attempted to engineer mergers between Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, and Wachovia and Goldman Sachs, though these efforts were unsuccessful. A waiver allowed him to engage with his former employer, Morgan Stanley, which subsequently converted to a bank holding company to access Fed loans. The Wall Street Journal highlighted Warsh's collaboration with Timothy Geithner in New York to resolve details with Goldman and Morgan Stanley. Warsh, drawing on his Morgan Stanley experience, provided critical insights into Wall Street's condition, warning colleagues well before the panic that the financial system was vastly undercapitalized.
Tasked by Bernanke to help devise financial reform, Warsh led a committee that proposed a more "macroprudential" approach to supervision and regulation, shifting from the traditional "microprudential" focus on individual firms. Throughout 2008, Warsh consistently voiced concerns about rising inflation, even amidst economic weakness. This stance, however, drew criticism from some economists and observers who argued it exacerbated the crisis by overlooking deflationary risks. Warsh's principal concerns about the permanent use of quantitative easing centered on potential misallocations of capital and government responsibility.
In September 2009, with unemployment high, Warsh argued for the Fed to begin withdrawing its support for the economy, warning of potential excessive lending fueled by ample bank reserves. His warnings of runaway inflation, however, did not materialize. At the November 2010 FOMC meeting, Warsh expressed skepticism about the Fed's plan to lower long-term interest rates through QE2, stating he would only vote for it out of respect for Chairman Bernanke. He believed monetary policy had reached its limits and that other policymakers should share the burden of economic recovery, advocating for tax and regulatory reforms.
Warsh announced his resignation from the Board in February 2011, effective March 31, 2011. Upon his departure, CNBC's Larry Kudlow described him as a "hard money hawk."
In his post-Federal Reserve career, Warsh continues as the Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution and as a scholar and lecturer at the Graduate School of Business. He sits on the boards of e-commerce companies Coupang and UPS, and advises Rubicon Global. In December 2016, he joined a business forum advising President-elect Donald Trump on economic issues. In November 2024, Warsh was reportedly on Trump's shortlist for Treasury Secretary and Chair of the Federal Reserve. In April 2025, he delivered a speech on Fed policy and independence to the Group of Thirty and the International Monetary Fund.
In October 2025, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed Warsh was among five candidates considered by President Trump to replace Jerome Powell as Fed Chair. Trump expressed high regard for Warsh. Market analysts suggested his nomination would be welcomed due to his Fed experience and perceived independence. On January 30, 2026, Trump formally announced his nomination. However, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis indicated he would oppose the nomination until a federal investigation into Powell was resolved, potentially blocking a Senate vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune suggested confirmation was unlikely without Tillis's support. Analysts viewed Warsh as a credible candidate with market respect, acknowledging a likely short-term focus on rate cuts but long-term credibility.
In his personal life, Kevin Warsh married Jane Lauder in 2002. She is a granddaughter and heiress of Estée Lauder and a long-time executive at the Estée Lauder Companies. The couple resides in Manhattan. Jane Lauder has held leadership positions, including Global Brand President for Clinique. Her net worth was reported at $2 billion in 2017, and her father is Ronald Lauder. In 2009, Warsh was recognized by Fortune magazine in its "40 under 40" list.
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Kevin Maxwell Warsh (born April 13, 1970) is an American financier and bank executive who served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011.
During and in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Warsh acted as the central bank's primary liaison to Wall Street and served as the Federal Reserve's representative to the Group of Twenty (G20) and as the Board's emissary to the emerging and advanced economies in Asia. Prior, he served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Executive Secretary of the White House National Economic Council, under President George W. Bush.
Warsh is currently the Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Economics at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, a scholar and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a member of the Group of Thirty, a member of the Panel of Economic Advisers of the Congressional Budget Office, and a former steering committee member of the Bilderberg Group. He has conducted research in the field of economics and finance, and has advised several private and public companies.
Warsh has been reported as a leading candidate for high-ranking economic positions in the U.S. government, including Secretary of the Treasury. In June 2025, Warsh was reported as a leading candidate, along with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, to be nominated to succeed Jerome Powell as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. On January 30, 2026, President Trump announced he had officially nominated Warsh as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve to succeed Powell.
== Early life ==
Warsh was born in Albany, New York, the youngest of three children of Judith and Robert Warsh. He was raised nearby in Loudonville, New York and graduated from Shaker High School in Latham; he credits his upbringing in upstate New York for teaching him 'much of what he need[ed] to know about the real economy.' He received a Bachelor of Arts in public policy from Stanford University in 1992 with a concentration in economics and political science. He then attended Harvard Law School and graduated cum laude with a J.D. in 1995. He also took coursework in market economics and debt capital markets at MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Business School.
== Career ==
From 1995 to 2002, Warsh worked for Morgan Stanley in New York City, rising to executive director in the company's mergers and acquisitions department.
From 2002 to 2006, Warsh was Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and Executive Secretary of the National Economic Council, for President George W. Bush. His primary areas of responsibility included domestic finance, banking and securities regulatory policy, and consumer protection. He advised the President and senior administration officials on issues related to the U.S. economy, particularly fund flows in the capital markets, securities, banking, and insurance issues. Warsh participated in the President's Working Group on Financial Markets and served as the administration's chief liaison to the independent financial regulatory agencies.
=== Federal Reserve Board ===
==== Nomination ====
President Bush nominated Warsh and Randall Kroszner to fill two Fed vacancies on January 27, 2006. Warsh's nomination drew some criticism, based on his age and inexperience. At 35 years old, Warsh was the youngest appointment in the history of the Federal Reserve. At the time, former Fed vice chairman and Reagan appointee Preston Martin said Warsh's nomination was "not a good idea" and that if he had a voice in the Senate, he would vote no. Ben Bernanke wrote "His youth generated some criticism, including from former Board vice chairman Preston Martin, but Kevin's political and markets savvy and many contacts on Wall Street would prove to be invaluable." In his confirmation documents, Warsh listed two published writings - "Deciding to Run for Congress: An Opportunity Cost Model with Partisan Implications" and "Corporate Spinoffs and Mass Tort Liability."
At his confirmation hearing on February 14, 2006, Warsh touted his experience on Wall Street: "I hope that my prior experience on Wall Street, particularly my nearly 7 years at Morgan Stanley, would prove beneficial to the deliberations and communications of the Federal Reserve."
He took office on February 24, 2006, to fill an unexpired term ending January 31, 2018.
==== Pre-crisis ====
His first meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed's policymaking body, was in March 2006. In March 2007 - less than a year before the rescue of Bear Stearns - Governor Warsh spoke about market liquidity:
The benefits of greater liquidity are substantial, through higher asset prices and more efficient transfer of funds from savers to borrowers. Historical episodes indicate, however, that markets can become far less liquid due to increases in investor risk aversion and uncertainty. While policymakers and market participants know with certainty that these episodes will occur, they must be humble in their ability to predict the timing, scope, and duration of these periods of financial distress. . . . Of course, investor confidence and liquidity can shift. In the aftermath of a financial shock, if buyers and sellers can no longer agree on the distribution of possible outcomes, their ability to price transactions will be severely limited.
==== 2008 financial crisis ====
Warsh played a significant role in navigating the 2008 financial crisis. According to author David Wessel, "Warsh established himself as the chairman's protector in Republican circles and Bernanke's bridge to Wall Street chief executives." Bernanke would write "Don Kohn, my vice chairman, with his long experience at the Fed, and Kevin Warsh, with his many Wall Street and political contacts and his knowledge of practical finance, were my most frequent companions on the endless conference calls through which we shaped our crisis-fighting strategy."
During the crisis Warsh tried to engineer mergers between Citigroup and Goldman Sachs and Wachovia and Goldman Sachs. These efforts failed. On September 20, 2008, he was granted a waiver to deal with his former employer Morgan Stanley. The next day Morgan Stanley was converted into a bank holding company in order to access Federal Reserve loans, in effect saving the firm. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Kevin Warsh, a Fed governor and former Morgan Stanley executive, worked in New York to sort out the details with Goldman and Morgan Stanley." The editors summarized the decision-making, "Mr. Warsh was part of former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's inner circle during the worst of the panic. Having worked at Morgan Stanley, he provided crucial insight into the real condition of Wall Street, and well before the panic he told his Fed colleagues that the financial system was vastly undercapitalized. 'I think, most fundamentally, that the business model of investment banks has been threatened, and I suspect the existing business model will not endure through this period,' Mr. Warsh told a Fed meeting on March 18, 2008."
Warsh was tasked by Bernanke to help devise a financial reform program to mitigate the risks of future trouble. Bernanke wrote "In late 2008, amid the crisis firefighting, we at the Fed began working on our own proposals for financial reform. I wanted to have a well formulated position before the legislative debates went into high gear. Kevin Warsh led a committee of Board members and Reserve Bank presidents that laid out some key principles. Kevin's committee considered a more explicitly 'macroprudential' or system-wide, approach to supervision and regulation. Historically, financial oversight had been almost entirely 'microprudential' – focused on the safety and soundness of individual firms, on the theory that if you take care of the trees, the forest will take care of itself. In contrast, the macroprudential approach strives for a forest-and-trees perspective."
Throughout 2008 Warsh predicted that inflation would rise despite financial turbulence and economic weakness:
March 2008: "On the inflation front, there is little reason to be confident that inflation will decline. There are reasons to believe that our inflation problems will become more pronounced and, I fear, more persistent."
June 2008: "Inflation risks, in my view, continue to predominate as the greater risk to the economy."
September 2008: "I'm still not ready to relinquish my concerns on the inflation front."
Many economists and observers, including conservatives, have argued that this focus on inflation and failure to recognize the risk of deflation significantly exacerbated the crisis. In his memoir, Chairman Bernanke writes about his frustration, "I vented in an email the next day to Don Kohn: 'I find myself conciliating holders of the unreasonable opinion that we should be tightening even as the economy and financial system are in a precarious position and inflation/commodity pressures appear to be easing.'"
Warsh's principal concerns about the permanent use of QE were highlighted in a panel discussion later alongside Bernanke. Warsh stated "My overriding concern about continued QE, then and now, involves the misallocations of capital in the economy and the misallocation of responsibility in our government. Misallocations seldom operate under their own name. They choose other names to hide behind. They tend to linger for years in plain sight. Until they emerge with force at the most inauspicious of times and do unexpected harm to the economy."
==== Recovery ====
In September 2009, with unemployment at 9.5% and climbing, Warsh argued that the Fed should begin to pull back on its efforts to help the real economy recover: "if policymakers insist on waiting until the level of real activity has plainly and substantially returned to normal — and the economy has returned to self-sustaining trend growth — they will almost certainly have waited too long… There is a risk, of much debated magnitude, that the unusually high level of reserves, along with substantial liquid assets of the banking system, could fuel an unanticipated, excessive surge in lending." The runaway inflation he warned about never appeared. University of Oregon Professor Tim Duy wrote in response to the speech that it looked as though "monetary policymakers are more willing to use unconventional monetary policy to support Wall Street than Main Street."
At the November 2010 FOMC meeting, Warsh was extremely skeptical of the Fed's plan to generate economic activity and jobs by trying to lower long-term interest rates. Although unemployment was close to 10%, Warsh told his colleagues that he would only vote for QE2 out of respect for Chairman Bernanke: "If I were in your chair, I would not be leading the Committee in this direction, and frankly, if I were in the chair of most people around this room, I would dissent." Even if unemployment were "unacceptably high," he suggested that he would vote against the program continuing if inflation inched up a bit.
He elaborated on his opposition to the program: "I think we are removing much of the burden from those that could actually help reach these objectives, particular the growth and employment objectives, and we are putting that onus strangely on ourselves rather than letting it rest where it should lie. We are too accepting of dangerous policies from others that have been long in the making, and we should put the burden on them." While Federal Reserve officials routinely offer their views on non-monetary questions such as taxes, spending and regulations, it is unusual for a Federal Reserve official to suggest that monetary support should be withheld in order to compel other branches of government to enact the Federal Reserve's favored policies.
Warsh worried about the efficacy of continuing extraordinary monetary policy accommodation. Bernanke would write of Warsh's views in the debate over QE2, "Kevin Warsh had substantial reservations... He had supported the first round of securities purchases, begun in the midst of the crisis. Now that financial markets were functioning more normally, he believed that monetary policy was reaching its limits, that additional purchases could pose risks to inflation and financial stability, and that it was time for others in Washington to take on some of the policy burden... As he had promised, Kevin voted in favor but, the following week he delivered a speech in New York and published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that reflected his reservations. He argued that monetary policy alone could not solve the economy's problems, and he called for tax and regulatory reforms aimed at increasing productivity and longer-term growth. I agreed that other Washington policymakers should take more responsibility for promoting economic growth. Federal spending on infrastructure projects such as road buildings, for example, could have helped make our economy more productive in the longer term while putting people back to work right away. Yet nobody expected anything to happen on the fiscal front or in other areas that Kevin highlighted, either. The reality was that the Fed was the only game in town. It was up to us to do what we could, imperfect as our tools might be... Kevin would leave the Board three months later, but not because of any policy disagreement. We had agreed when he was appointed in 2006 that he would stay for about five years. We remain close to this day."
Warsh announced his intent to resign from the Board in a letter sent to President Obama on February 10, 2011, effective around or on March 31, 2011. When he left the Fed, CNBC's Larry Kudlow expressed disappointment and described Warsh as a "hard money hawk."
=== Post-FRB career ===
Warsh is the Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and a scholar and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He is also a member of the board of directors at the e-commerce companies Coupang and UPS and is an advisory board member for Rubicon Global.
In December 2016, Warsh joined a business forum assembled by then president-elect Donald Trump to provide strategic and policy advice on economic issues.
In November 2024, Warsh was reportedly among Donald Trump's shortlist of prospective nominees for Treasury Secretary and Chair of the Federal Reserve.
In April 2025, Warsh delivered a speech to the Group of Thirty and the International Monetary Fund on Fed policy and independence, “Central Banking at a Crossroads."
=== Fed Chair nomination ===
In October 2025, United States Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent confirmed that Warsh was on the short list of five candidates being considered by President Trump to replace Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell when his term ends in May 2026. President Trump, when asked directly about Warsh's prospective nomination, said "He's very highly thought of." CNBC analysed that Warsh's nomination would be welcomed by markets because of his past Fed experience and Wall Street’s view that he would not always do Trump's bidding.
In January 2026, Bloomberg News reported that the Trump administration was preparing to name Warsh as chair, which was confirmed when Trump formally announced the nomination on January 30th. However, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, has stated that he will oppose Warsh's nomination until the federal investigation into Powell is "fully and transparently resolved." Since the Senate Banking Committee's composition currently includes 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats, Tillis has the ability to block the committee from voting to advance Warsh's nomination to a full Senate confirmation vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said that Warsh will "probably not" be confirmed without support from Tillis. David Bahnsen, chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group analysed his nomination as chair of the Federal Reserve as "He has the respect and credibility of the financial markets, and there was no person who was going to get this job who wasn't going to be cutting rates in the short term. However, I believe longer term he will be a credible candidate."
== Personal life ==
In 2002, Warsh married Jane Lauder, a granddaughter and heiress of Estée Lauder and long-time employee of the family business, the Estée Lauder company.
The couple lives in Manhattan. Formerly general manager of Origins, Lauder has served as the Global Brand President for Clinique since 2014. According to Forbes, her net worth as of September 27, 2017 was $2 billion. Warsh's father in law is Ronald Lauder.
In 2009, Warsh was named to Fortune magazine's "40 under 40".
== References ==
== Further reading ==
=== Writings ===
Warsh, Kevin, and Jeb Bush. "Commentary: A New Strategy for Economic Growth." The Wall Street Journal. August 10, 2011.
Warsh, Kevin. "Commentary: The 'Financial Repression' Trap." The Wall Street Journal. December 6, 2011.
Warsh, Kevin, and Stanley Druckenmiller. "Commentary: The Asset-Rich, Income-Poor Economy." The Wall Street Journal. June 19, 2014.
=== Federal Reserve ===
Wessel, David. In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic. New York: Crown Business, 2009. ISBN 978-0-307-45970-1 OCLC 464303608 "Chapter 6: The Four Musketeers: Bernanke's Brain Trust." pp. 106–115.
== External links ==
Statements and Speeches of Kevin M. Warsh at FRASER
Kevin M. Warsh at Stanford University's Hoover Institution
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