America's next top Fed Chair
The Indicator from Planet Money
NPR
4.7 • 9.5K Ratings
🗓️ 2 February 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s show, three Fed watchers give their advice for the next chair. On politics, interest rate cuts and dealing with the Fed’s repeated trading scandals. Oh, and can someone please forward this episode to Kevin Warsh?
Related episodes:
One Fed battle after another
Lisa Cook and the fight for the Fed
A primer on the Federal Reserve's independence
It's hard out there for a Fed chair
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | NPR. |
| 0:02.0 | This is the Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darian Woods. |
| 0:14.4 | And I'm Whalen Wong. |
| 0:16.1 | On Friday, we heard the long-anticipated conclusion to what has been like the economics |
| 0:20.7 | equivalent of |
| 0:21.5 | the bachelor. President Trump finally picked who he wanted to lead the U.S. Central Bank, the Federal Reserve. |
| 0:27.6 | Yes, President Trump said he would nominate Kevin Walsh to lead the Fed. Kevin Walsh started his career |
| 0:33.5 | at Morgan Stanley. Later, he was a governor at the Fed during the Great Recession. And if |
| 0:38.5 | confirmed by the Senate, he'll start after the current Fed Chair Jerome Powell's term expires in May. |
| 0:44.0 | Kevin Warsh would lead the Fed at a tempestuous time. The central bank's independence is under attack |
| 0:49.2 | by the president. Yeah, Trump routinely bashing the outgoing Fed chair publicly was only the start. |
| 0:55.0 | He also tried to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook, accusing her of mortgage fraud. |
| 0:59.2 | She denies this and has brought a case to the Supreme Court. |
| 1:02.2 | We've also had the Department of Justice subpoena the Fed over building renovation costs. |
| 1:06.6 | And that's not even taking into account what's happening in the actual economy. |
| 1:19.1 | The dollar sliding, elevated inflation, talks of a bubble in AI stocks, and money rushing to buy up precious metals. |
| 1:22.6 | The next Fed chair has his work cut out for him. |
| 1:29.0 | In the public service, the new leader is often given a briefing. You know, what's happening with the organization, what's the landscape out there, and what policy options are at |
| 1:33.7 | their disposal. |
| 1:34.6 | So today on the show, we're going to do just that. |
| 1:37.5 | Our briefing to the incoming Fed chair. |
| 1:44.1 | This message comes from TED Talks Daily, the podcast from TED. |
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