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Warsh Raises Rates at the September FOMC Press Conference, Sep. 16, 2026

September 16, 2026 · Federal Reserve · 0:28:43

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Chair Kevin Warsh announced on September 16, 2026, that the Federal Open Market Committee had voted unanimously, 12–0, to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points, to 3.75 to 4.00 percent — the Federal Reserve’s first rate increase since July 2023, according to the FOMC statement. “The plain fact is that inflation is too high, and has been for too long,” Warsh told reporters, saying the summer’s inflation readings did not tell him that underlying trends had meaningfully improved. He repeated the meeting’s rationale three times in one phrase: the Committee had “removed a dose of accommodation.”

Warsh framed the move as the Committee keeping its word: “Today’s policy action will support a timelier return to the Committee’s 2 percent goal,” and, in the line carried across market coverage that day, “this committee will deliver price stability.” He pointed to robust credit flows and job gains that had kept pace with the workforce as evidence the economy could carry the tighter policy. The decision landed against the stated position of the President who appointed him: President Trump had argued publicly that rates should be lowered, and this chronicle’s roster record carries Warsh’s chairmanship as an open conflict with the President’s cut demands — a conflict the unanimous vote, with no dissent in either direction, made institutional rather than personal.

Why it matters

Every FOMC press conference is an Economy scoreboard event on this site, and this one is the hinge of Warsh’s first year: the June hold that rewrote the Fed’s communications, the July hold that split the Committee, and now a unanimous hike — the sequence that defines the tracked Warsh record against the President’s demands. The next scheduled meeting, October 27–28, 2026, is the next checkpoint.

Scoreboard watch

This is a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard: the September 16, 2026 FOMC decision (unanimous 25-basis-point increase to 3.75–4.00 percent, the first hike since July 2023) and Warsh’s “removed a dose of accommodation” framing — each as stated in the FOMC statement and the press conference transcript, to be checked against the October 27–28, 2026 FOMC meeting.

Sources: Federal Reserve, “FOMC Press Conference, September 16, 2026” (the Federal Reserve’s official upload, embedded above); FOMC statement, September 16, 2026; press conference transcript, Federal Reserve. All figures and characterizations as stated by Chair Warsh and the Committee.