WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh, with whom President Donald Trump is reported to have discussed firing U.S. central bank chief Jerome Powell and installing him in his place, on Friday unleashed a barrage of criticism of the Fed and argued for fundamental changes to how it operates. In a speech full of long-standing criticisms but short on specifics for what he would do differently, Warsh said he believes in the Fed's "operational independence" but argued it has gone beyond its remit and undermined its claims to independence. "Independence is reflexively declared, all too often in my view, when the Fed is criticized," he told a conference in Washington organized by the Group of Thirty, an international body of financiers and academics.
