Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh has appointed 15 co-leaders across five task forces to scrutinise the central bank's operations, spanning communications, data practices, balance sheet policy, productivity and employment, and its inflation framework. The panels, which will operate independently and report to the Federal Open Market Committee, are expected to deliver recommendations by year's end.
Prominent figures named Wednesday include venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who will co-lead a panel examining how artificial intelligence affects productivity and jobs, former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King on communications, former Walmart chief Doug McMillon on data, and Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent on inflation. Former central bank heads from Brazil, England, and India also join the effort.
The initiative follows Warsh's call for a "regime change" at the Fed during his confirmation process. He has signalled a desire to shrink the Fed's roughly $6.7 trillion bond portfolio, and the review was first flagged at his June press conference after a notably brief policy statement.