By Dan Burns
July 29 (Reuters) – Kevin Warsh came into the Federal Reserve chairman’s seat busting for, as he repeatedly called it, a “good family fight,” and he appears to have had a bruiser at this week’s two-day policy meeting, just the second he has overseen.
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Three of his fellow Federal Open Market Committee members dissented against a decision to hold interest rates unchanged, preferring they be raised, according to the policy statement released on Wednesday by the U.S. central bank.
No Fed leader since the 1970s has faced such great opposition so early in their tenure, according to a record of FOMC dissents maintained by the St. Louis Fed.
Arthur Burns had three FOMC members vote against his very first policy decision in February 1970. And Paul Volcker had two members object at his first meeting — then four at his second.
More recently, Janet Yellen had a dissenting vote at her first meeting in March 2014, when the Fed’s benchmark interest rate was held near zero but extensive new forward guidance was introduced that drew opposition from then-Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota.
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Indeed, most Fed leaders since 1970 have faced some opposition within their first year. Warsh’s immediate predecessor, Jerome Powell, was one who bucked that trend, managing a string of unanimous decisions to start his term before the first dissent was lodged in June 2019, his 11th meeting as head of the central bank.
And just one Fed leader since the 1930s has made it through with a perfect record: Thomas McCabe chaired 19 meetings between May 1948 and March 1951 without a single recorded dissent.
Following is a list, based on St. Louis Fed records, of the meetings at which a new Fed leader encountered their first dissents from FOMC members, how far into their tenure that occurred and how many policymakers voted against the decision of the day.
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Kevin Warsh — July 2026 (second meeting, 3)
Jerome Powell — June 2019 (11th meeting, 1)
Janet Yellen — March 2014 (first meeting, 1)
Ben Bernanke — August 2006 (fourth meeting, 1)
Alan Greenspan — December 1987 (fourth meeting, 2)
Paul Volcker — August 1979 (first meeting, 2)
G. William Miller — May 1978 (fourth meeting, 2)
Arthur Burns — February 1970 (first meeting, 3)
William McChesney Martin — November 1957 (63rd meeting, 1)
Thomas McCabe — none (19 meetings, May 1948-March 1951)
Marriner Eccles — December 1938 (16th meeting, 3)
(Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Paul Simao)
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