Lots More With Skanda Amarnath on the Risks of Kevin Warsh

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

Tracy Alloway (0:08)

Oh, Joe, this is cutting. This is from Neil Dutta, friend of the pod.

Joe Weisenthal (0:13)

Oh yeah. All right, read it out. Read it out.

Tracy Alloway (0:14)

President Trump has picked everyone's least favorite candidate, Kevin Warsh, for the next Fed Reserve Chief. I tip my hat to Warsh, who has managed to get selected after being passed over time and again. That's a remarkable achievement for him. Joe, I want a t-shirt that says Ruthless Utility Maximizer.

Joe Weisenthal (0:35)

Black gold.

Tracy Alloway (0:36)

Let's talk about losers.

Joe Weisenthal (0:38)

Who cares?

Tracy Alloway (0:38)

I've decided I'm going to base my entire personality going forward on campaigning for a strategic pork reserve in the US.

Joe Weisenthal (0:44)

Skulls Unlimited.

Tracy Alloway (0:46)

What's the ticker for that?

Joe Weisenthal (0:47)

No, I think that in a couple of years, the AI will do a really good job of making the Odd Lots podcast.

Tracy Alloway (0:53)

How do I get more popular and successful?

Joe Weisenthal (0:56)

One day, that person will have the mandate of heaven. We do have the perfect guest.

Tracy Alloway (1:02)

You're listening to Lots More, where we catch up with friends about what's going on right now.

Joe Weisenthal (1:07)

Because even when the Odd Lots is over, there's always Lots More.

Tracy Alloway (1:10)

And we really do have the perfect guest.

Joe Weisenthal (1:18)

I'm just gonna say what I find interesting right now is that, you know, like Trump announces someone and you expect a bunch of like liberal ninnies in the media to like shake their fist. It's like, oh, this isn't good, you know? It's like, there's a lot of predictable response, but it is interesting to my mind to hear someone like Neil, who is, I do not associate him with liberal media group think or anything like that, as well as many others who are like, huh, interesting pick here.

Tracy Alloway (1:47)

Well, I will say, opinions kind of divided. So, Mohamed El-Erian tweeted earlier that he thinks Kevin's going to be a great Fed chair, and he's observed, and this is a quote, having observed and interacted with Kevin during his prior tenor as Fed governor in academia and as a fellow member of the group of 30, I believe he brings a strong mix of deep expertise, broad experience and sharp communication skills.

Joe Weisenthal (2:16)

By the way, Jason Furman too, he tweeted, Kevin Warsh is well above the bar on both substance and independence to be chair of the Federal Reserve. The Senate should ask tough questions about his independent and President Trump should reduce the threat to it. Hopefully that will make it clear Warsh should be confirmed. So it is a mix on both sides. It is not dividing in obvious, easy ways. Anyway, Skanda, what's up?

Skanda Amarnath (2:38)

Glad to be part of this momentous day.

Joe Weisenthal (2:40)

It is a momentous day.

Skanda Amarnath (2:41)

We see that Kevin Warsh is right now the successor in waiting if he gets confirmed by the Senate. It is funny how he's part of this group of 30, which is a form of former central bankers, former finance ministers, and movers and shakers. So you see Muhammad Al-Aryan, Jason Furman, George Osborne, I believe, Mark Carney. Certainly not exactly the most America first kind of grouping, maybe more globalist in flavor. Has definitely rallied around Kevin Warsh because I think they've probably conversed with him a bunch of times and take him to be a very serious person. I myself am much more sympathetic to what our friend Neil has pointed out.

Joe Weisenthal (3:22)

By the way, we are talking of course to longtime friend of the pod, Skanda Amarnath, co-founder and executive of Employ America. So when you see like, okay, so someone like Neil and someone like yourself, and you have these reservations, like what is the origin of some of these anxieties?

Skanda Amarnath (3:38)

I think there are a few different anxieties. I think let's start with, this is obviously someone who served on the Fed before, right? He was a Fed governor. So we have like a track record. We don't have to rely on second-hand validation. We don't have to, if we didn't have anything by Kevin Warsh, then I think probably it's probably putting a little more emphasis on what Jason Furman and Muhammad Alarian and what those people are saying and they seem like respectable people. Except he was Fed governor and he does have a pretty long body of work in terms of a public intellectual, giving remarks, being in the Wall Street Journal, opinion pages, and the trouble is it comes back to like, who do you want in a crisis? The Fed really tends to matter the most in periods of crisis. He was a Fed governor in the crisis and he often touts it as-