00:00Investors may be reading too much into perceptions that U.S. Federal Reserve Chair nominee Kevin Walsh would support aggressive
00:08interest rate cuts.
00:09Economist Nazri Awang says although Walsh's record suggests that he remained fundamentally hawkish, despite recent comments seen as supportive of
00:18lower borrowing costs.
00:20So I think what my view on that is I think the market is partly overriding it because his record
00:27is quite structurally hawkish.
00:31He was on the Fed before this from 2006 to 2011. He was the youngest Fed president back then.
00:39And what we saw from his board tenure back then, and then even after he left the Fed, his commentary,
00:48that was quite consistent with, you know, inflation discipline and balance sheet credibility.
00:56Walsh served on the Federal Reserve Board from 2006 until 2011 and became the youngest governor in the institution's history
01:03at that time.
01:04His name drew renewed attention after U.S. President Donald Trump considered replacing current Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell amid
01:11frustration over the bank's cautious approach to rate cuts.
01:15On Tuesday, Walsh cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate, bringing him closer to confirmation ahead of Powell's term
01:22ending on Friday.
01:24Nazri also noted that Walsh repeatedly defended the importance of Federal Reserve independence and criticised the central bank for reacting
01:31too slowly to inflation in 2022.
01:33But I think the far more important point that we have to remember is the chairman is just one vote
01:43out of 12 other Fed presidents.
01:47So Walsh is replacing Stephen Mirren, who was the FOMC's most dovish voice who were quite open to cutting rates.
01:57So the group that is very dovish, very open to cutting rates, actually, right now, that group is shrinking rather
02:10than expanding.
02:11And then we saw during...
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