Kevin Warsh names members of his Federal Reserve task forces, including Marc Andreessen, Doug McMillon
Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh on Thursday announced the names of experts who will form a five-task force to examine the agency’s operations; This list includes prominent figures on Wall Street, business leaders, and many academics and former Fed officials.
Warsh first announced his intention to form task forces last month, saying they would deal with communications, data, the Fed’s balance sheet, data, productivity and employment, and the framework of how policymakers view inflation. The group will look at everything from inflation to artificial intelligence as part of the monetary policy review Warsh has promised.
The names in question include venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, former Bank of England Governor Mervin King and former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Greg Mankiw. Doug McMillon, former CEO of Walmart, is one of the names of the company executives involved in the issue. Many names, including King, have been leaked before.
“I am honored that the best minds from a range of disciplines have agreed to work with us to improve our performance as an institution,” said Warsh. “The goal is clear: to ensure that the Fed is best positioned to achieve our goals during this important period.”
A. Fed press release Although he did not give a timeline for when the task forces will complete their work, Warsh said he expects the changes to come this year.
The statement also said the panels “will operate independently with the authority to pursue the evidence, provide candid feedback, and produce definitive findings,” which will be reported to Federal Open Market Committee officials.
Members represent a wide range of interests spanning ideologies and backgrounds.
Others selected for the task forces include Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India; former Fed Governor Jeremy Stein and Canadian economist William White, who warned about central bank making easy money before the 2008 global financial crisis.
This is the second major appointment in recent days, according to Andreesen, who was appointed to the U.S. Defense Policy Board, the Pentagon’s civilian advisory group, in late June. Andreesen sits on the productivity and employment task force.
When Warsh, who has been president for less than two months, first announced the task forces, he said the groups would “start with first principles, ask tough questions, examine current practices, evaluate alternatives, and finally recommend next steps for policymakers to consider.”
The Fed is “committed to rigorously pursuing our mandate,” the president said in his announcement Thursday.
The task forces are expected to take a sharp look at Fed orthodoxy. Warsh has already had an impact on Fed communications, as officials try to provide less guidance on where policy is heading and focus more on the “response function,” or the conditions under which they will adjust interest rates. The post-meeting statement in June was considerably shorter than previous versions.
Members of the task forces are:
Contact: Peter R. Fisher, professor of practice, Foster School of Business, University of Washington; Arminio Fraga, founder and president of Gávea Investimentos and former president of the Central Bank of Brazil; and King.
Balance Sheet Politics: Karen Dynan, Harvard economist; Rajan and Stein.
Data: McMillon, Harvard economist Raj Chetty and University of Chicago economist Kevin Murphy.
Productivity and Jobs: Andreesen, Stanford economist Charles I. Jones, and Microsoft vice president and XBOX CEO Asha Sharma.
Inflation Frameworks: Mankiw, White, and New York University economist Thomas Sargent.
The groups will also be supported by Fed staff.
