Fed Races To Adapt To AI Promises And Pitfalls For Jobs, Inflation
That group includes Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh, who feels interest rates should fall in part to account for AI-driven productivity gains holding down inflation.Warsh, who must still be formally nominated and confirmed by the Senate, argued in a November Wall Street Journal op-ed that AI is "a significant disinflationary force, increasing productivity and bolstering American competitiveness," and could be best accommodated by the Fed with lower rates.Warsh's narrative, which he casts as a forward-looking stance similar to former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan's in the mid-1990s, has been met by growing caution among Fed policymakers about how fast AI will translate into staffing practices and whether the historical rule of thumb will hold that new technologies displace jobs but ultimately create even more.Citrini Research's thought exercise last week, warning of a jobs apocalypse, triggered a brief but significant stock selloff, a sign of how unsettled investors and perhaps the wider publi