MarketPR
Hot August consumer price index data has placed Kevin Warsh at an institutional fork.
Warsh can validate his repeated inflation warnings with a rate hike, or he can hold and absorb immediate questions about whether he commands the central bank the way his rhetoric has implied.
The print lands at an uncomfortable moment for consensus. Markets had been watching how much of Warsh's inflation language would translate into actual policy, and the August numbers have shortened that evaluation window.
The setup heading into the Fed's next decision is a question of follow-through: Warsh warned about inflation, the data confirmed it, and the rate decision is where the two converge.
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