Kevin Warsh in Conversation with CASI

When news broke on January 30 that Kevin Warsh was named to succeed Jerome Powell as chairman of the Federal Reserve, it brought renewed focus to a familiar voice in Stanford’s policy conversations. A former Federal Reserve governor and a distinguished fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, Warsh has maintained longstanding ties to the university, including through the Corporations and Society Initiative (CASI) at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Over the past few years, a series of CASI-hosted forums and public discussions have offered students and faculty the opportunity to engage directly with his thinking on monetary policy, financial power, and institutional credibility, issues that sit squarely at the heart of CASI’s mission.

In February 2025, CASI hosted an off-the-record conversation with Warsh exclusively for Stanford GSB students and faculty. Titled Money, Markets, and Main Street, the discussion focused on the growing distance between financial markets and everyday economic experience, examining how central banking decisions ripple beyond Wall Street and into local communities. Warsh emphasized institutional trust, the limits of monetary tools, and the long-term consequences of policy choices made under political and economic pressure.

CASI convened a public panel in January 2024 titled Power and Politics in Banking, bringing Warsh into conversation with CASI faculty director Anat Admati, with Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Amit Seru serving as moderator. The panel explored how political incentives, regulatory capture, and concentrated financial power shape banking policy and outcomes.

Warsh reflected on his time at the Federal Reserve during the 2008 financial crisis, acknowledging that policymakers were slow to recognize the severity of the collapse. He argued that the global banking system was effectively insolvent and that regulators, despite being responsible for oversight, were among the last to fully grasp the situation.

Although major reforms were enacted to prevent a repeat crisis, Warsh suggested they may not have gone far enough, particularly as the largest banks appear stronger and more profitable than ever. He described himself as holding an “old-fashioned view of regulation and supervision” offering insight into how he might lead the Federal Reserve.

Admati pressed forcefully on questions of accountability and systemic risk, challenging assumptions about bank fragility and the public costs of private financial decisions. The exchange reflected CASI’s role as a forum where assumptions are questioned and ideas are actively tested.

Those themes had also surfaced at a January 2023 CASI luncheon titled Monetary Policy on the Menu. There, Warsh spoke candidly about inflation, interest rates, and the difficult trade-offs central banks have faced in the wake of the pandemic. Addressing an audience of students, faculty, and practitioners, he reflected on the constraints policymakers confront when fiscal and monetary boundaries blur, and on why institutional credibility remains essential to long-term economic stability.

Across these events, the conversations reflect the intellectual leadership of Admati, whose work on banking, financial stability, and power has informed CASI’s programming. Her direct approach and insistence on analytical rigor help shape discussions that are frank and substantive, including CASI’s engagements with Warsh.

As Warsh prepares to assume his new role at the Federal Reserve, these exchanges stand less as milestones than as markers of an ongoing dialogue. Together, they illustrate CASI’s commitment to sustained, serious engagement on economic governance and focused on the real-world consequences of policy choices.