{"id":74743,"date":"2026-06-17T20:51:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/06\/17\/new-fed-chair-shows-his-influence-even-as-u-s-policymakers-hold-rates-again\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T20:51:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:51:56","slug":"new-fed-chair-shows-his-influence-even-as-u-s-policymakers-hold-rates-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/06\/17\/new-fed-chair-shows-his-influence-even-as-u-s-policymakers-hold-rates-again\/","title":{"rendered":"New Fed chair shows his influence even as U.S. policymakers hold rates again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<br \/><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bank of Canada not &amp;apos;in rush&amp;apos; to rescue housing markets\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DSHlCmbmUZo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> The United States Federal Reserve is already showing early signs of new chair Kevin Warsh \u2018s influence after policymakers unanimously voted to hold interest rates steady between 3.5 per cent and 3.75 per cent for the fourth consecutive meeting on Wednesday. <\/p>\n<p> New quarterly projections \u2014 often referred to as the dot plot \u2014 show that nine Fed officials anticipate a rate hike to 3.8 per cent by year-end and 3.6 per cent by the end of 2027. Eighteen of the 19 policymakers submitted rate projections for the dot plot chart, with the missing dot confirmed to be Warsh\u2019s. <\/p>\n<p> The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said inflation remains elevated, but economic activity is expanding despite elevated uncertainty from the conflict in the Middle East. Productivity growth and capital investment also posted strong gains and the labour market remains stable. <\/p>\n<p> Its statement also removed language previously used to flag the likelihood of rate cuts this year, but added that \u201cthe committee will deliver price stability.\u201d Any guidance on future rate moves was also removed. <\/p>\n<p> The updated statement marks a turning point in the Fed\u2019s leadership and monetary policy after Warsh took the helm as Fed chair from Jerome Powell less than a month ago. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cI did not submit a dot. For me, it\u2019s not helpful in the conduct of policy,\u201d he said during his first press conference in the position. \u201cI suspect by year-end, as I mentioned in my opening statements, there will be a review about communications broadly, press conferences, dots, meetings and the like (including) transcripts, minutes.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> Most observers believed Warsh would be more aligned with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has long pushed Powell to cut interest rates. Warsh, though, has promised to maintain the Fed\u2019s independence from political interference. <\/p>\n<p> The FOMC\u2019s decision comes as the U.S. economy weathers its highest inflation in the past three years. Headline inflation reached 4.2 per cent in May, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. <\/p>\n<p> Warsh said the Fed is committed to \u201cgetting monetary policy right\u201d and getting headline inflation back down to the two per cent target. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe recognize that inflation has been running well ahead of the Fed\u2019s long-stated inflation goal of two per cent that\u2019s been going on for more than five years,\u201d he said. \u201cPersistently high prices are a burden for the American people, but the recent past need not be prolonged.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> Canadian economists, many of whom expected the Fed to hold rates steady, said Warsh\u2019s direction is already evident. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe vote was unanimous, so no dissents, and what was noteworthy in the press statement is that it was seriously tightened up to 130 words for Kevin Warsh\u2019s first meeting from 341 words at Jay Powell\u2019s final confab,\u201d David Rosenberg, founder and president of Rosenberg Research &amp; Associates Inc., said in a note on Wednesday. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cAlready, Warsh has made his stamp \u2014 ostensibly not providing a forecast and cutting the verbiage by more than 60 per cent \u2014 and providing no forward guidance, which has been a pattern by the Fed since 2012.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> Michael Gregory, deputy chief economist at the Bank of Montreal, called the shorter policy statement unexpected. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe previous language in the statement that was construed as an \u2018easing bias\u2019 was removed, also as expected. But unexpectedly, much more was removed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cGone was what the Fed tends to repeat each time anyway, the roll call, and any forward guidance. The statement was shorter, but also simpler. It mirrors the direction that chair Warsh has said he would like to take.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> <em>\u2022 Email: ptran@postmedia.com <\/em> <\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li>Why an inflation-loving Trump might put Canadian mortgagors on edge<\/li>\n<li>Who is incoming U.S. Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh and what will his tenure mean for Canada?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<br \/>New Fed chair shows his influence even as U.S. policymakers hold rates again<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2026-06-17 20:51:56<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Federal Reserve is already showing early signs of new chair Kevin Warsh \u2018s influence after policymakers unanimously voted to hold interest rates steady between 3.5 per cent&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/74744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}