The Fed’s moves on interest rates aren’t just about Trump’s pick for chair. Here’s the math.

Washington Watch

The Federal Reserve chair is one of 12 voters on the rate-setting committee. To what extent can the chair call the shots?

Published: June 26, 2025 at 4:21 p.m. ET

Fresh concerns about President Donald Trump’s plans for rolling out his pick for Federal Reserve chair shook traders Thursday, after a Wall Street Journal report said the announcement could come by September or October — or even this summer.

The dollar DXY dropped to a three-year low, with the fall pinned on bets that interest rates could decline sooner than previously expected, as well as on worries about an erosion of the U.S. central bank’s independence. The term of the Fed’s current chair, Jerome Powell, runs into May, and in recent decades announcements of successors have come with three or four months to spare, rather than eight to 10 months in advance.