Fed Chair Kevin Warsh on Thursday named the members of five outside task forces that will help shape recommendations for overhauling the central bank.
The groups bring together heavyweight economists alongside prominent business leaders and tech executives, and are expected to deliver recommendations by the end of the year.
Here’s what we know so far:
Communications
Leaders:
- Peter R. Fisher, former Treasury official and ex-New York Fed executive
- Arminio Fraga, former governor of Brazil’s central bank
- Mervyn King, former governor of the Bank of England
Their Mission: Review how the Fed communicates with markets and the public, including policy statements and broader messaging.
This group is stacked with former central bankers known for shaping monetary policy communication. Warsh has previously signaled he wants the Fed to speak less about its future rate intentions than it has in recent years.
Balance Sheet Policy
Leaders:
- Karen Dynan, Harvard economist and former Treasury official
- Raghuram Rajan, former Reserve Bank of India governor
- Jeremy Stein, Harvard economist and former Fed governor
Their Mission: Evaluate how the Fed should manage its balance sheet and asset holdings.
Warsh has been an outspoken critic of the Fed’s large post-crisis balance sheet. This task force includes economists with deep experience in central banking and financial markets.
Data
Leaders:
- Raj Chetty, Harvard economist
- Doug McMillon, former Walmart CEO
- Kevin Murphy, University of Chicago economist
Their Mission: Recommend ways the Fed can improve the data it uses to understand the economy.
McMillon brings a real-time business perspective from one of the nation’s largest retailers, while Chetty is known for pioneering the use of big data in economics.
Productivity and Jobs
Leaders:
- Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz
- Charles I. Jones, Stanford economist
- Asha Sharma, CEO of Microsoft’s AI Platform
Their Mission: Study how artificial intelligence and technological change are affecting productivity, employment, and economic growth.
This is arguably the highest-profile panel. Andreessen has been one of Silicon Valley’s most vocal AI advocates, while Sharma leads Microsoft’s AI Platform business, bringing firsthand experience developing enterprise AI tools.
Inflation Frameworks
Leaders:
- Greg Mankiw, Harvard economist
- Thomas J. Sargent, Nobel Prize-winning economist
- William White, former chief economist at the Bank for International Settlements
Their Mission: Review the Fed’s inflation framework and its measures of price stability.
The panel features three of the world’s best-known monetary economists. Warsh has suggested the Fed should reconsider how it thinks about inflation as the economy evolves.
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