Jerome Powell is staying at the Fed. That isn’t Kevin Warsh’s biggest problem.Story

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Jerome Powell held his last press conference as Federal Reserve chair on Wednesday afternoon, but said he would stay on as a Fed governor pending the conclusion of an investigation into the renovation of the Fed’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.Powell, whose term as a governor runs through early 2028, said he would keep a low profile and has no interest in acting as a shadow chair under his presumptive successor, Kevin Warsh. That may be welcome news to Warsh, given the other challenges he is likely to face, including the most fractious Federal Open Market Committee in more than 30 years.The Fed held its federal-funds rate target steady after its April 28-29 policy meeting in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%, as expected.

What was unexpected was that four Fed officials dissented from the monetary policy action, the most dissents since 1992.Gov. Stephen Miran voted for a rate cut.

Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan supported the rate stance but objected to language suggesting a rate cut could be the Fed’s next move.The FOMC’s postmeeting statement referred to considerations of the extent and timing of “additional” adjustments to the fed-funds target range, implying a continuation of the Fed’s rate-cutting path. All three regional presidents have spoken publicly of their concerns about greater inflation.Powell said at a postmeeting press conference that the committee’s debate over the statement’s language was lively, and that the camp favoring more neutral language has grown since the last meeting.

“It’s a much closer thing on the committee than it was in March,” he said.Markets took note. The probability of a rate