The first interest rate-setting meeting for a new Federal Reserve chairman was always going to be an arresting event.
Ideally, if the White House had its way, the anointed choice, Kevin Warsh, would have announced a Trump-pleasing rate cut.
Instead, with employment strong and the inflation fallout from the Strait of Hormuz still being felt, the hold of the US federal funds rate at a range of 3.5 per cent to 3.75 per cent was well-telegraphed.
Warsh, a former governor of the Fed, is very different from his predecessor, Jay Powell.
Despite being a Trump first-term choice, Powell found himself under siege from Trump and encountered raw abuse over his refusal to cut rates.
