Warsh Faces First Big Test at Fed

Luke Vargas· Host0:00

[music] All eyes are on Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh ahead of his first interest rate decision today, though he'd prefer that they weren't.

Nick Timiros0:10

His view is that the Fed has trained markets to hang on its every word, and he'd rather it say less and let the economic data do the talking.

Luke Vargas· Host0:20

Plus, the Trump administration expands its anti-fraud campaign to state unemployment programs coast to coast, and we'll take a bite of the only gentleman's relish we could get our hands on. It's Wednesday, June 17th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. [music] It's Fed day, and not just any Fed day, as new chairman Kevin Warsh prepares for his first rate decision and press conference.

Nick Timiros0:54

Kevin Warsh has been clear for years that he thinks the Fed talks too much. He wants a central bank that explains itself less, fewer speeches, less guidance.

Luke Vargas· Host1:05

That's our chief economics correspondent, Nick Timiros, who told us that less guidance could mean not publishing the Federal Reserve's so-called dot plot, which maps out where rates are headed.

Nick Timiros1:16

Warsh's instinct is to keep his options open and not commit to a path. The irony is that he's walking into a moment when markets are desperate for clarity, and the tool that he's most skeptical of, the dot plot,