Former Fed nominee Judy Shelton unloaded on Fed Chair Jerome Powell in a Sunday Wall Street Journal op-ed, branding the central bank’s 2% inflation target a policy of “intentional debasement” and invoking James Madison‘s view that a depreciating currency is unconstitutional because it erodes property rights.

The timing is not subtle.

Kevin Warsh, the man Trump actually nominated, faces the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday with his path already bruised by the Justice Department’s inquiry into Powell’s testimony about Fed headquarters renovations.

The Op-Ed That Doubles As A Job Application

Shelton was technically supportive of Warsh, citing his past IMF remarks on central bank overreach.

But the bulk of the piece is her own pitch: gold-standard sympathies, skepticism of Fed discretion, and openness to currencies that could compete with the dollar.

She also took direct shots at Powell for 31% cumulative inflation since 2018 and for failing to apologize, let alone resign, for missing the Fed’s own targets. It reads less like an endorsement of Warsh and more like a résumé for whatever comes next.

Shelton still trades at 1% on Polymarket to be the next confirmed Fed Chair. The op-ed has not moved her, but it landed in a week where several adjacent markets are in flux.

What Polymarket Is Actually Pricing

Warsh sits at roughly 94% to eventually be confirmed, but only 35% to get there by May 15, the day Powell’s term as Chair ends.

Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) has said he won’t vote to confirm Warsh until the Powell investigation is dropped.

Even if Warsh walks into the building, the market is not pricing in the dovish pivot the White House wants, his future FOMC colleagues have signaled skepticism of his AI-driven case for cuts and Polymarket’s most liquid Fed contract, with nearly $20 million in volume, puts zero rate cuts in 2026 as the single most likely outcome at 36%, with one cut at 30%.

Why XRP, Bitcoin And Gold Bugs Are Paying Attention

Shelton’s academic work on a “New Bretton Woods,” a global monetary reset anchored to a neutral reserve asset, has been adopted for years by the XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) community, which sees Ripple’s bridge-currency architecture as the natural plumbing.

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) maximalists treat her as the only plausible Fed Chair who would tolerate, rather than fight, hard-money alternatives. SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) would similarly catch a bid on any shift toward her framework.

Warsh testifies Tuesday. If he wobbles, Shelton has already handed the Senate her manifesto and the XRP army its thesis.

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