Potential candidates for Federal Reserve Chair: The Federal Reserve blames external factors for inflation concerns as self-defeating credibility

Kevin Warsh, a potential candidate for next year's Fed chairpersonship, said the Fed's concerns that "tariffs could impede inflation control" were self-defeating. "When the Fed asserts that inflation is affected by external changes in price levels, they are in a way admitting something that is damaging to their own interests," Mr. Warsh said. "They are admitting that their credibility has been damaged." Mr. Warsh added that the Fed's large and often expanding balance sheet could contradict its main policy lever for setting short-term borrowing rates, but that "if the printing press quiets down, we can lower the policy rate".