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Updated on: June 16, 2026 / 3:09 PM EDT
/ CBS News
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Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh will hold his first press conference on Wednesday, offering borrowers and investors a chance to assess his plans to keep the U.S. economy on track. Warsh, who has vowed that the Fed will remain "strictly independent" in overseeing monetary policy, last month succeeded former chair Jerome Powell at a difficult juncture, with inflation surging to its highest level in more than three years. At the same time, President Trump has previously underlined his eagerness for the Fed to lower interest rates, the central bank's main tool for spurring economic growth. Yet Warsh could also benefit from some economic tailwinds, including robust job growth in recent months.With investors overwhelmingly expecting the Fed to keep its benchmark interest rate steady on Wednesday, the focus will be on Warsh himself and his handling of the press conference that follows the central bank's policy statement, economists told CBS News."The story at this meeting is not what's going to happen with rates — that's pretty much a foregone conclusion," said NerdWallet senior economist Elizabeth Renter. "The most interesting thing that's happening at this meeting is Warsh's debut and what that means for how we see the Fed moving forward."Warsh, a former Fed board governor, has suggested the Federal Reserve should provide less guidance on future rate moves and expressed his view that the AI boom will boost economic productivity, helping to ease inflation and potentially supporting lower borrowing costs.To be sure, much has changed about the economic outlook since December, when the Fed penciled in one interest rate cut for 2026. Since the Iran war started in late February, inflation has flared amid higher oil and gas prices, pushing the Consumer Price Index to an annual rate of 4.2% in May — the highest since April 2023.
