Kevin Warsh sworn in as Fed chair, FOMC unanimously backs him on day one

Kevin Warsh took the oath of office as chairman of the Federal Reserve on May 22, 2026 — and before the day was out, the Federal Open Market Committee had unanimously chosen him as its chairman as well, according to the Federal Reserve.

The swearing-in capped a nomination-to-confirmation sprint that began when President Donald Trump put Warsh's name forward on March 4, 2026. The Senate confirmed him as a Board member on May 12 and as chairman on May 13, according to federalreserve.gov.

Warsh is not a stranger to the Eccles Building. He served as a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011, joining the Board and sitting through the acute phase of the 2008 financial crisis alongside then-chairman Ben Bernanke. That experience — watching the Fed deploy emergency lending facilities, negotiate with Wall Street in real time, and ultimately backstop the financial system — gives him a hands-on crisis résumé that few incoming chairs have brought to the job.

Between his two stints at the Fed, Warsh moved through a set of institutions that shaped his economic worldview. He was a Shepard Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution and a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he engaged with a tradition of skepticism toward activist monetary policy. He also worked as a partner at Duquesne Family Office, the investment vehicle associated with Stanley Druckenmiller, giving him a markets-practitioner perspective alongside his policy credentials, according to federalreservehistory.org.

Before his first Fed term, Warsh spent seven years at Morgan Stanley and then served as special assistant to the president for economic policy and executive secretary of the National Economic Council from 2002 to 2006, according to the Fed's official biography. That White House background makes him one of the few Fed chairs to have worked inside the executive branch before taking the independent central bank's top post — a detail that will draw scrutiny from those who watch the Fed's political independence closely.

His term as chairman runs through May 21, 2030. His seat on the Board of Governors — a separate appointment — extends to January 31, 2040.

The Fed chair controls the agenda of FOMC meetings, serves as the system's public face on monetary policy, and is the primary interlocutor with Congress and the Treasury. The FOMC sets the federal funds rate, the benchmark that ripples through mortgage rates, business borrowing costs, and the broader economy. A unanimous first-day FOMC vote to seat Warsh as its chairman signals at least a procedurally smooth start with the committee he will need to lead by consensus.

Why it matters — As Fed chair, Warsh will set the direction of U.S. interest rate policy — decisions that directly affect what Americans pay on mortgages, car loans, and credit cards, and that shape the broader global economy.

Reported by federalreserve.gov, federalreservehistory.org