Warsh Overhauls How the Fed Talks and Keeps Markets Guessing on Rates

Kevin Warsh used his first meeting as Federal Reserve chairman to put his stamp on how the central bank operates and communicates.

He trimmed its policy statement, declined to submit a rate forecast of his own, and launched five task forces to study everything from how the Fed communicates to how it analyzes the economy—a sweeping reach into how the central bank operates.

About the things markets most wanted to understand—how the new chairman reads the economy and translates it into policy—he said almost nothing. Pressed later on inflation, on whether policy was restrictive and on the future of the so-called interest-rate dot plot, Warsh repeatedly demurred. “We have a task force for that.”

On one point he was emphatic: The committee was united and determined to bring inflation down. “We’ve missed for five years, and we’re going to fix that,” he said, pledging that the committee would “unambiguously and unanimously” deliver price stability.