Inside Trump's pick to replace Jerome Powell

About this episode

The episode discusses Kevin Warsh's appointment as the new chair of the US Federal Reserve and its implications for US monetary policy and Australian investors.

In May 2026, Jerome Powell's tenure as chair of the US Federal Reserve comes to an end. His replacement is Kevin Warsh — a former Fed governor and Donald Trump's hand-picked choice to lead the world's most powerful central bank. The appointment has been anything but quiet, arriving against a backdrop of sustained political pressure from the Trump administration, public attacks on Powell, and a criminal investigation into cost overruns at the Fed building. But beyond the politics, what does the leadership change actually mean for US monetary policy, for inflation, and critically, for Australian investors and retirees? To break it all down, Mitchell is joined by Kris Bernie, portfolio manager at fixed income specialist Kapstream Capital. Kris is responsible for macroeconomic research, asset allocation, and interest rate and foreign exchange trading — which means he watches the Federal Reserve more closely than most. What you'll learn in this episode - Why the Fed chair matters to Australians — from equity markets and the Aussie dollar to term deposit rates - Who Kevin Warsh is and why Trump picked him - How Warsh's inflation-focused philosophy differs from Powell's dual-mandate…

People in this episode

Host: Mitchell

Guests: Kevin Warsh, Kris Bernie

Topics covered

• US Federal Reserve
• monetary policy
• inflation
• Australian investors
• political pressure
• Kevin Warsh

Keywords

• Federal Reserve
• Kevin Warsh
• Jerome Powell
• inflation
• Australian economy
• Trump administration
• monetary policy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Kapstream Capital

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