President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Federal Reserve Board has implications for the central bank’s monetary policy decisions.
The president nominated Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Stephen Miran to the Fed to replace Fed governor Adriana Kugler, who is stepping down Friday. Miran will hold that seat for a few months until the Jan. 31 term expires while the president looks for a different candidate to nominate for a full 14-year term as Fed governor.
But how will the nomination impact the central bank and the decisions it makes on setting interest rates? Here are three things you need to know about Miran’s views and what they could mean for the Fed.
Miran wants lower interest rates
Miran, who criticized the Fed last fall for cutting rates, warning that lower rates could perpetuate inflation further, is now in favor of cutting rates.
Miran, who holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University, believes that the Trump administration’s policies, from immigration to trade and deregulation, which he has helped create, are disinflationary. This contrasts with many on the Fed who believe the president’s tariffs could lead to higher inflation. If the Senate were to confirm Miran in time for the Sept. 16-17 policy meeting and the full committee is not convinced to lower rates at that time, Miran would likely dissent in favor of cutting rates. That would mark three on the committee who could dissent: Fed governors Chris Waller and Michelle Bowman both dissented at the July policy meeting, preferring to lower rates by 25 basis points.
Read more: How the Fed rate decision affects your bank accounts, loans, credit cards, and investments
Miran’s ‘Mar-a-Lago Accord’ favors a weaker dollar
Miran favors a weaker dollar as a way to offset higher inflation from tariffs while also increasing exports, narrowing the trade deficit, and boosting growth. He is the author of what he dubbed the “Mar-a-Lago Accord,” a reference to the 1985 Plaza Accord that succeeded in depreciating the dollar’s value. The Mar-a-Lago Accord seeks to devalue the dollar while retaining the greenback as the world’s reserve currency. As one who favors a weaker dollar, Miran favors lower interest rates, which could lead to a weaker dollar if US rates are lower than the interest rates of other central banks around the world. The president has pushed for a 3 percentage point drop in the Fed’s benchmark policy rate. Investors will watch for how much Miran will push for the policy rate to drop if confirmed.
Miran wants a less independent Fed
Miran has advocated for major changes to the Fed. In a paper co-authored in 2024 with the now chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Miran called for an overhaul of the central bank by Congress that would give the White House more control over firing Fed governors, as well as not allowing Fed governors to serve in the executive branch for four years following their term as governor. He also argued for subjecting the Fed’s independent budget to congressional appropriations. The proposals for allowing the president to dismiss Fed officials at will have stirred fears that the move could politicize the central bank and push the Fed to make policy according to the whims of the political cycle and not the economic cycle.
Read more: How jobs, inflation, and the Fed are all related
Still, as only one governor on the Fed, and possibly a temporary one, Miran himself isn’t expected to tip the scales all that much. Any major changes to the structure of the central bank would have to come from Congress, and there’s still a 19-member committee that will make decisions on rates led by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who, like the majority of the Fed, remains in a “wait-and-see” mode for the impact of tariffs on inflation.
Jennifer Schonberger is a veteran financial journalist covering markets, the economy, and investing. At Yahoo Finance she covers the Federal Reserve, Congress, the White House, the Treasury, the SEC, the economy, cryptocurrencies, and the intersection of Washington policy with finance. Follow her on X @Jenniferisms and on Instagram.
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