Chapter 1: Who is Kevin Warsh and what is his background?
president has chosen his nominee for second most powerful economic policy position in the country. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. This morning, President Trump revealed his choice to lead the Federal Reserve. It is Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor and more recent Fed critic. If confirmed by the Senate, Warsh would replace Jerome Powell, whose term expires in May.
Warsh had called for, quote, regime change at the Fed, Marketplace's Nova Safo reports.
Kevin Warsh served as Fed governor from 2006 until 2011, a time span that included the financial crisis and the Federal Reserve's efforts to stabilize Wall Street. He's a visiting fellow in economics at Stanford's Hoover Institution, a conservative-leaning think tank. Warsh has recently criticized the Federal Reserve, saying that it has not done enough in the past to fight inflation.
Here he is speaking at the Hoover Institution.
The central bank can hit any price level that it wants, any inflation level that it wants. We might not like how they do it, but the idea that is they should be blaming someone else strikes me as quite antithetical to good economic history.
Warsh believes the Fed now should lower interest rates more, something President Trump has called for. Warsh says doing so won't trigger more inflation because artificial intelligence and its advancements will boost productivity. Higher productivity has historically been a deflationary force.
Warsh also wants less intervention in financial markets and a more hands-off approach at the Fed toward bank regulation. I'm Novosafo for Marketplace.
With electricity-hungry artificial intelligence, there's concern about power shortages, higher bills for consumers, and environmental degradation. Some big companies are paying to restart nuclear plants. On a different scale, there's Redwood Materials, a startup that takes used electric vehicle batteries to help power a data center in, for instance, Nevada.
Colin Campbell is chief technology officer at Redwood Materials.
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Chapter 2: What are Kevin Warsh's views on the Federal Reserve's actions?
Long story why, but among the many things I can tell you about that island nation off of East Africa, it really has lemurs, its economy is challenged, and the ruts on its red earth roads could swallow a Volkswagen.
So when our colleagues at the BBC pitched a story about Madagascar opening its first stretch of modern highway, I was especially interested in the economic, ecological and cultural impacts. Here's reporter Andre Lombard.
Life in the driving seat isn't always easy in Madagascar. Twice a week, Reker makes the long return journey between the capital Antananarivo and the country's biggest port, Torremacina, a trip he says can take up to 16 hours. All this in a country the IMF says has some of the worst roads on the continent. The current road is really bad. It's very narrow and there are loads of trucks.
It makes me very worried.
But that could all be about to change. The first eight kilometres of a new highway that links the two cities together has been inaugurated. Eventually, it will stretch 240 kilometres, budgeted to cost a billion dollars. Some of that money will be recouped in tolls, but it's hoped the main payday will come through the increased trade the road will bring.
Journey times are predicted to reduce to around two and a half hours and certainly as we turn onto the new road, its smooth tarmac is a big change from the rough and ready current road. So we've just stopped off after going onto the new highway and if it sounds very quiet, that's because it is. We've only seen a few cars passing as we stand here.
We venture further into the countryside, off the main roads and onto hilly rugged tracks that seriously test our 4x4. Salama. Nice to meet you. How are you? We're here to meet Neni Farah. The 70-year-old has farmed rice and pineapples here all her life, with her family owning the land for generations. But now, that could all change.
She shows me towards a red post that appeared near her land overnight, which marks the route the new highway will take. It hurts me. I feel like I've been stabbed in the back. It's hard because no one has been in touch with us about the proposition of the highway. The highway was initially approved by the presidency of Andri Rajalina, who was deposed in a military coup in October.
The new government has said it will continue with the motorway project. The environment minister at the time of the start of the highway construction was 29-year-old Max Fontaine. He tells me that the country is getting the balance of protecting its heritage and environment with its economic development right.
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Chapter 3: How does Warsh propose to address inflation and interest rates?
From APM American Public Media.