Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh on Thursday announced the names of experts who will form five special committees to investigate the Fed’s operations. The list includes Wall Street luminaries, business leaders, and a wide range of academics and former Fed officials.
Mr. Warsh first announced last month that he would form a special committee to address communications, data, the Fed’s balance sheet, data, productivity, employment and the framework for how policymakers view inflation. The group will tackle everything from inflation to artificial intelligence as part of Warsh’s promised overhaul of monetary policy.
Celebrities involved include venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, and former White House Council of Economic Advisors Chairman Greg Mankiw. Former Walmart CEO Doug McMillon leads the list of executives involved. Several names, including Mr. King, had previously been leaked.
“We are honored that the best talent from a variety of fields has agreed to work with us to improve our performance as an institution,” Warsh said. “The goal is simple and clear: to ensure that the Fed is best positioned to achieve its goals at this critical time.”
The Fed’s news release did not provide a timeline for when the task force would complete its work, but Warsh said he expected changes to be made this year.
The statement also said the committee “operates independently with a mission to track evidence, provide candid feedback, and produce rigorous findings,” which will be reported to Federal Open Market Committee officials.
Members represent a wide range of interests across ideologies and backgrounds.
Other members appointed to the special committee include former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan. Former Federal Reserve Governor Jeremy Stein and Canadian economist William White, who warned about easy money in central banks before the 2008 global financial crisis.
This is Andreessen’s second high-profile appointment in recent days, having been named to the Defense Policy Board, a civilian advisory body to the Pentagon, in late June. Mr. Andreessen is a member of the Special Committee on Productivity and Employment.
Warsh, who has been chairman for less than two months, first announced the creation of the task force, saying the groups would “start with first principles, ask tough questions, examine current practices, consider alternatives, and ultimately recommend next steps for consideration by policymakers.”
The Fed chairman said in Thursday’s announcement that the Fed is “determined to rigorously carry out our mandate.”
The special committee is expected to take a hard look at the Fed’s legitimacy. Mr. Warsh is already having an impact on Fed communications, as officials tend to provide less guidance on policy direction and focus more on “responsive functions” — the conditions under which interest rates are adjusted. The statement following the June meeting was significantly shorter than previous statements.
The members of the task force are:
Communications: Peter R. Fisher, Professor of Practice, Foster School of Business, University of Washington. Arminio Fraga, founder and chairman of Gávea Investimentos and former president of the Brazilian Central Bank. And King.
Balance Sheet Policy: Karen Dynan, Harvard University economist. Rajan and Stein.
Data: McMillon, Harvard economist Raj Chetty, and University of Chicago economist Kevin Murphy.
Productivity and employment: Andreessen, Stanford economist Charles I. Jones, and Microsoft executive vice president and XBOX CEO Asha Sharma.
The Inflation Framework: Mankiw, White, and New York University economist Thomas Sargent.
These groups will also be supported by Fed staff.
