WASHINGTON — Kevin Warsh, a former US Federal Reserve official tipped to be named its chief by President Donald Trump on Friday, was long an inflation foe but has aligned his views with those of Trump officials seeking aggressive interest rate cuts. Trump said he would announce his pick after the Fed held its benchmark rate steady this week under Chairman Jerome Powell, whom the president again slammed as a “moron.” The months of personal attacks have fuelled widespread fears among investors that the Fed’s policy independence is under threat, potentially posing an inflation risk to the world’s biggest economy. According to US media reports, Warsh has edged out three other contenders for the Fed job: Fed Governor Christopher Waller, Rick Rieder of the investment behemoth BlackRock, and Trump’s top economic adviser Kevin Hassett. A Fed governor between 2006 and 2011, Warsh was previously a mergers and acquisitions banker at Morgan Stanley. He later joined former president George W. Bush’s administration, serving as a White House economic policy adviser from 2002 to 2006 before being nomin
