The FOMC just wrapped up its first meeting with new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh. What comments did Warsh provide on the state of the economy and where rates may be headed. Are hikes possibly in the future or could we see more cuts? What other changes could we see from the Fed under its new leader? Nationwide&#x27;s Chief Economist Kathy Bostjancic and Investment Leader and Head of Fixed Income for Nationwide Brad Beman share their reaction to Warsh&#x27;s comments and the outlook for the fed funds rate. [NFM-22911AO]

FOMC: Under new management

Economic Insights by Nationwide

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Economic Insights by Nationwide

## Participants

- **Brian Kirk** (Nationwide)
- **Kathy Bostjancic** (Nationwide Economics)
- **Brad Beeman** (Nationwide)

## Transcript

Welcome to Economic Insights by Nationwide for June 18, 2026. The FOMC, Under new management. The Federal Open Market Committee just wrapped up its first meeting with new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh. As expected, the Fed Funds rate was held steady at 3.5-3.75%.

In his press conference, what comments did Warsh provide on the state of the economy and where rates may be headed? Are hikes possibly in the future or could we see more cuts? And what other changes could we see from the Fed under its new leader? This is Brian Kirk and with us today to share their insights, we have Nationwide's Chief Economist, Kathy Bostjancic and Investment Leader and Head of Fixed Income for Nationwide, Brad Beeman.

Kathy and Brad, thank you both for joining us today. We look forward to hearing both of your thoughts from the FOMC's statement and the comments from the new Fed Chair at his press conference. Kathy, let's start with your insights. What were your expectations going into this meeting and were those expectations met? Yeah, thanks Brian. Well, the first thing, as you said, rates were unchanged. So that was completely as expected.

I think the other thing, there was great speculation with the new Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh, tried to shorten up communications and he indeed did that right off the bat. He greatly shortened up the policy statement. When I looked at the word count, I think he reduced it by almost 60% compared to the previous length. So a much skinnier policy statement. And as part of that, he is refraining from giving forward guidance.

That has been something he's talked about for a while. And indeed he delivered on that. And I think there's more to come where he really wants to have the Fed pull back in all the Fed speak and guidance that they're giving the markets. And he wants what he would say is, and he elaborated this in the press conference, is truer price stability in the financial markets.

And he argued that actually better serves the Fed Reserve itself, because if the markets are just reacting to what they say, then there's not really price stability. He wants the markets to kind of try to come up with their own view of where inflation is, where's growth going, where interest rates. And then that could be information for Fed officials to digest. And I think there is some quite value in that. I think the big news though was the update to the interest rate dot plot estimate.

So what you see now is half of the FOMC members, so nine officials, believe now there is at least one rate cut on the offering for this year. And of those nine, five think there's two rate cuts or 50 basis points in total. And then one policymaker thinks there's three rate hikes or 75 basis points. Only one official anticipated a 25 basis point rate cut.

And to be clear, Cha...

FOMC: Under new management

Transcript

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FOMC: Under new management

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.