Donald Kohn Says Kevin Warsh Has Adapted to Leading the Fed

Former Federal Reserve Vice Chair Donald Kohn said Chair Kevin Warsh has adjusted to leading the central bank after arriving with some fixed ideas, pointing to Warsh’s discussion of the economy alongside policy principles in an Aug. 28 speech.

Warsh delivered the remarks at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium. He opened with a joke about hiking with Kohn: “I can sum up my hikes with former Vice Chairman Don Kohn in two words: I survived.” Warsh also called the outings “steely marathon death marches.”

In an interview published Oct. 28, Kohn said Warsh had changed his approach as he became more familiar with the institution. “He came in with some fixed ideas, and he has adapted as he’s surveyed—as he’s walked through the landscape,” Kohn said. “I’ve been encouraged that he’s learned, but I’m not surprised.”

Kohn said he had worried Warsh’s opposition to forward guidance might make him reluctant to discuss the economic outlook, because markets could interpret those comments as clues about future interest rates. Kohn praised the Jackson Hole speech for addressing economic conditions as well as policy principles.

Warsh argued that forward guidance should have a “limited and circumscribed” role in normal times. The Kansas City Fed’s annual symposium ran Aug. 27-29 this year under the theme “Financial Innovation: Implications for Payments and Policy.”

Kohn described hikes as opportunities for central bankers to exchange ideas. He recalled discussing inflation targets and nominal gross domestic product targets with Warsh on one outing. Their tenures on the Federal Reserve Board overlapped; Kohn served as vice chair from June 2006 to June 2010.

Warsh took office as chair on May 22, 2026, for a term scheduled to end May 21, 2030.