“What are you waiting for?” Bloomberg’s Michael McKee asked Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh during one of the sharpest exchanges of Wednesday’s press conference — his second since taking the top central banking job in May.
McKee was referring to the Fed’s reluctance to raise interest rates despite stubborn inflation. Less than an hour earlier, the Federal Open Market Committee announced its decision to hold interest rates steady for the fifth straight meeting. But three FOMC members dissented in favor of a quarter-point rate hike in a sign of growing divisions among policymakers.
Shortly thereafter, Ann Saphir of Reuters asked Warsh why he has taken no rate-specific action on the inflation front despite promising to deliver price stabi...