Kevin Warsh Fed Chair Odds Soar After WSJ Report Of Trump Meeting

Kevin Warsh’s PredictIt odds to be the next Fed chair soared moments ago after the WSJ reported that President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with the former Fed governor on Thursday to discuss his potential nomination as the next Federal Reserve chairman, “a White House official said, signaling that the West Wing is moving ahead with a process that the president has said he would like to have completed by the end of the year.”

In immediate reaction, Warsh’s odds jumped by 10% to 45% while Janet Yellen’s tumbled by 8 to 24%.

That said, “Chairman Warsh” is not assured just yet, and as the WSJ adds, other names in contention include current Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen, Stanford University economist John Taylor and John Allison, the former BB&T Bank chief executive, according to people familiar with the process. Mr. Allison was offered a position on the central bank’s board of governors earlier in Mr. Trump’s tenure, but turned it down, said people familiar with the offer.

Mr. Warsh is a former Fed governor and was a member of the president’s Strategic and Policy Forum, a group of business leaders that disbanded in August in protest over what they said was Mr. Trump’s failure to sufficiently condemn racism. He was also an economic adviser to 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who was considered the front-runner for the nomination before Mr. Trump’s political rise surprised the political establishment.

Mr. Warsh, a veteran Republican economic policy maker, is married to Jane Lauder, granddaughter of cosmetic icon Estée Lauder . His father-in-law, businessman Ron Lauder, has been lobbying the White House to have the president name his son-in-law to the central bank’s highest post, said people familiar with those conversations.

Most notably, Warsh has historically been one of the most prominent inflation hawks and outspoken critics of existing Fed policies, which may explain the sharp move higher in the dollar and the corresponding slide in TSY prices.