Evaluating the economy these days changes depending on which data point you’re looking at. Trends in gross domestic product growth, inflation, unemployment rates, wage growth, consumer confidence, trade imbalances, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average all tell a different story and portend a different economic future. For businesses, the varying interpretations of the data make it difficult to prepare their organizations for the next economic shift.
The special guest presentation at the 2024 FEDA Annual Executive Leadership Conference should provide clarity on what is really going on in today’s global markets and what business leaders can expect in 2025 and beyond. The presentation, which follows the Gold Awards Breakfast on Sept. 19, will feature Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011 who oversaw the board’s operations, personnel and finance performance and served as its emissary to the emerging and advanced economies in Asia. Before joining the Fed, Warsh was executive secretary of the White House National Economic Council and a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions Department at Morgan Stanley. Today, Warsh is a member of the Group of Thirty (G30), an international body of financiers and academics, and a Shepard Family distinguished visiting fellow in economics at Stanford’s Hoover Institution.
In his presentation, Making Tough Decisions: Leadership, Money and the Fed, Warsh will reflect on his work to help guide the United States out of the 2008 financial crisis and will cover the lessons from that period that can be applied to the permacrises facing businesses today. He will also decode what business leaders can expect in both the short and long term and will lay out a roadmap for how companies can spur economic growth and foster stability amid turbulent financial markets.
The program will include his analysis of the Fed’s current policies, particularly regarding inflation. Warsh has been critical of the board’s approach in the past and even called for revamping the nation’s monetary policy in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece earlier this year. “Inflation isn’t caused by workers earning too much and living too well,” he wrote. “It’s caused by the government living too well — spending, printing and borrowing too much.”
During an appearance on Larry Kudlow’s show on Fox News in June, Warsh provided three recommendations for how the Fed should change its monetary policy. First, he suggested the board eliminate its quarterly dot plot, a chart that indicates where each member expects interest rates to be over the next few years. Warsh noted that the dots are attempting to predict things that the Fed can’t predict, and the inaccurate predictions have hurt the Fed’s credibility.
Second, Warsh said the Fed should stop providing forward guidance. Instead, he said the board should stick to a simpler cause-and-effect approach where it outlines a specific action that will occur depending on how inflation behaves. Finally, Warsh said the Fed should stop giving Congress incentives to spend money on projects that aren’t needed and are coming at the wrong time or the wrong price. For example, by buying treasury bonds, Warsh explained the Fed was suppressing yields and giving Congress the ability to spend more.
Attendees can look forward to hearing all of Warsh’s monetary policy recommendations as well as learning how to respond to the economic challenges ahead at the FEDA Annual Conference.