BlackRock executive Rick Rieder has risen to the top of prediction markets.
President Donald Trump said he will announce the new Federal Reserve chairman next week.
“We’re going to be announcing the head of the Fed, who that will be, and it’ll be a person that will, I think, do a good job,” Trump said during his Jan. 29 Cabinet meeting.
He also criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates enough.
“We’re paying far too much interest. The Fed rates are too high—unacceptably high,” Trump added. “We should have the lowest interest rate anywhere in the world.”
The president thinks the benchmark federal funds rate—a key policy rate that affects business and household borrowing costs—should be 2 to 3 percentage points lower.
“Each point is the equivalent of, I would say, $500 billion, so if you got two points at all, you have a trillion dollars in savings,” he said.
While economic growth remains firmly intact, the administration believes conditions could be even better if the Fed loosened monetary policy.
“We want help, not hindrance—why would the Fed hinder?” Trump said.
“But with the help of the Fed, we could hit numbers that have never been hit before.”
The Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow Model estimates fourth-quarter 2025 growth at 4.2 percent, driven by consumer spending and net exports.
Fed Policy on Hold
Trump’s remarks come one day after the Fed left interest rates unchanged at its first meeting of 2026. Investors anticipate the first rate change will happen in June, according to futures market data.
As to who is expected to be Powell’s successor, prediction markets are giving BlackRock executive Rick Rieder an edge.
Polymarket data suggest Rieder has a 39 percent chance of securing the nomination. Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, who had risen to the top of prediction markets earlier this month, sits in second place with 29 percent odds.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and Fed Governor Christopher Waller have slipped in expectations.
By Andrew Moran
