U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh addressed G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Asheville. Bessent outlined priorities including growth, financial reform, global imbalances and sovereign debt, while Warsh emphasized cooperation on shared economic challenges. Bessent also highlighted coordinated economic pressure against Iran. For more details, watch our story and subscribe to our channel, DRM News.
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What Kevin Warsh said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Kevin Warsh, Federal Reserve Chairman, addressed the G20 Finance Ministers in Asheville, marking his first G20 appearance in his new role. He noted he has been in office for 100 days and emphasized the importance of the G20 as a forum for sharing perspectives. Warsh rejected the old economic themes of secular stagnation and a global savings glut, arguing that the current period is one of 'secular growth' and a 'global investment surge.' He expressed interest in discussing growth prospects across countries, whether cyclical or structural, and sharing his views on the US. Warsh also highlighted the venue's historical significance, noting the hotel was established in 1913, the year of the Federal Reserve Act, and referenced a mentor's description of this moment as a 'hinge point in history.' He concluded by looking forward to robust discussions over the next two days.
Key takeaways
Warsh declared the era of secular stagnation over, describing the current period as one of 'secular growth.'
Warsh noted he has been in office for 100 days and is attending his first G20 as Federal Reserve Chairman.
Warsh emphasized the G20's role in sharing diverse perspectives to prepare for the future.
Numbers and commitments
Figure
What it refers to
Type
At
100 days
Length of Warsh's tenure as Federal Reserve Chairman
based on Iran. Iran has attacked Jordan or US targets in Jordan last night. Is Iran taking the sanctions seriously enough, and they don't seem phased by them?
Well, they're taking them very seriously. If you look back what the Iranian political leadership has said over the past 10 days, they're in shock at the state of their economy. And you know, we are seeing gas lines. Could you imagine a country in the world with the third largest amount of energy resources has to import gasoline since they now have three, four-hour gas lines that go through the night? So I would think that they are lashing out kinetically because they are losing economically. And I want to thank the European Union for their very wholesome support for Operation Economic Outcasts. They made it known today in the strongest terms that they supported.
No. It's that we have the blockade and they are going to continue exerting pressure. We've had very good discussions here already, and I think it could be within weeks or months. The economy doesn't have to collapse; we just have to have the regime come to their senses.
I think that you seem to be a bit confused that the US growth is quite strong, and global growth—we will get to the other side of this Iran conflict, and the world will be better for that. In terms of certainty, we have the tariff deals with the countries, and we are seeing quite strong global growth. We believe that the countries need to take substantial deregulation, energy security, which the Iran conflict has highlighted.
You talked about the importance of economic growth coming out of the prior administration. Can you speak a little bit more on that, and did that play a role in taking more aggressive action on China, Canada, Iran, etc.?
Well, look, we are coming back to basics. As I've said before, America First does not mean America alone. We were left with a mess. I say sometimes that I feel like an emergency room doctor and the economy is the patient, and the American people were backed over by the Biden Mack truck. We have stabilized the patient, and now we're in the healing portion, and real incomes are increasing. We will get to the other side of this Iran conflict. We are seeing this technological burst in the US. We are seeing a re-industrialization. We're seeing construction jobs. And what's important now for the US is these are private sector jobs. We are seeing a decrease in government jobs. As the president says, he could create 2 million jobs if he wanted to; they'd be government jobs. And one of the reasons that we are seeing the low-income workers, the bottom 25%, do better than the top 25 is because these are private sector jobs. Our goal here today is to reiterate our message of growth. The world is awash in debt post-GFC, post-COVID, and the only way for us to get out of this is to grow our way out of this. I'm confident that a lot of the leaders are very receptive to this.
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Warsh, K. (2026, August 31). JUST IN: Scott Bessent and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh Address G20 Finance Leaders in Asheville | AF1G [Interview transcript]. DRM News. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1291537/
MLA
Kevin Warsh. "JUST IN: Scott Bessent and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh Address G20 Finance Leaders in Asheville | AF1G." DRM News, 31 Aug. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1291537/.
BibTeX
@misc{warsh2026_1291537,
author = {Kevin Warsh},
title = {JUST IN: Scott Bessent and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh Address G20 Finance Leaders in Asheville | AF1G},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, DRM News. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {aug},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1291537/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
