At a moment when the boundary between political will and institutional independence is being tested, Kevin Warsh stands poised to assume leadership of the Federal Reserve with a signal already sent: that the central bank's mandate to guard financial stability will not yield to the preferences of the White House. His anticipated support for a rate hike, despite administration pressure for lower borrowing costs, places the question of Fed autonomy at the center of American economic life. How a nation governs its money is, in the end, a statement about what it trusts and what it fears.