Kevin Warsh can’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz
Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh looks on during his first news conference since taking the helm at the central bank, on June 17, 2026 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images New York —The public is fed up with the high cost of living, and the Federal Reserve is once again under pressure to act. Kevin Warsh, the new Fed chairman, has vowed to get inflation back to 2%. Some investors suspect the Warsh-led Fed will show it’s serious about that pledge by raising rates as soon as Wednesday. And yet: As powerful as the Fed is, its inflation-fighting tools are limited when it comes to combating the supply-driven inflation America is facing now. The Fed can’t conjure a durable ceasefire in the war with Iran, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, nor disappear President Donald Trump’s high and volatile tariffs . “Rate hikes won’t keep the bombs from dropping,” said Benson Durham, a former Fed official and founder of DASM LLC, an independent research firm. Supply trouble causing inflatio...