First rate: Kevin Warsh’s Fed debut
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2026
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As expected, the new Federal Reserve chairman kept rates steady. More interesting were what he did and did not say. How will he handle inevitable pressure from President Donald Trump? After nearly disappearing altogether, Germany’s left-wing Die Linke party is roaring back—particularly among the young. And a selection of our readers’ examples of upward-management tips and tricks.
Guests and host:
- Archie Hall, US economics editor
- Tom Nuttall, Berlin bureau chief
- Andrew Palmer, Bartleby columnist
- Rosie Blau, co-host of “The Intelligence”
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”
Topics covered:
- Federal Reserve, interest rates, monetary policy, Iran war
- Germany, Die Linke, left-wing politics
- management, managing management
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist. |
| 0:09.7 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:12.7 | I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:13.8 | And I'm Rosie Bloor. |
| 0:19.1 | Today on the show, Germany's left-wing delinca wins over the young |
| 0:23.0 | and a selection of our readers' hacks for managing managers. |
| 0:33.6 | First up, though. |
| 0:46.3 | ... First up, though. President Donald Trump put Sharpie to paper yesterday, inking the long-awaited and much-touted deal with Iran. |
| 0:50.3 | With that, a reminder that for all the power plays and posturing, he always has his eye on markets and money. |
| 0:58.4 | I didn't want to see economic catastrophe. |
| 1:01.6 | If you kept this going, that could have happened. |
| 1:04.6 | But all I know is every time we talked about the possibility of peace, the stock market shut up like a rocket ship. |
| 1:11.7 | You know who must have been glad Mr. Trump was preoccupied with Iran? |
| 1:15.8 | Kevin Warsh, freshly minted chair of the Federal Reserve. |
| 1:19.2 | It was rate-setting time yesterday, his first. |
| 1:22.4 | What to expect from this lifetime hawk who got all dovesh when angling for the job? |
| 1:27.3 | From the next chair who should expect relentless Trumpian pressure to lower rates? |
| 1:31.8 | As you saw a few moments ago, the committee decided to maintain the target range for the Fed funds rate |
| 1:37.7 | at three and a half to three and three quarters percent. |
| 1:41.6 | He held firm. |
| 1:44.4 | Not the most exciting news, but as so often with Fed shares, there were more tea leaves to be |
| 1:50.3 | read. |
... |
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