Janet Yellen nominated Treasure Secretary. Photo: Floridapolitics.com
By Isaac Cohen*
President-elect Joseph R. Biden has appointed an economic team that is competent, experienced, diverse and includes several firsts. He designated Janet Yellen as the first woman to head the Treasury Department. A renowned University of California, Berkeley labor economics professor and former head of the Council of Economic Advisors, Yellen was head of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Vice- Chair and Chair of the Federal Reserve. She is also the first person to have served as head of the three economic policy agencies.
Princeton Professor of labor economics and education Cecilia Rouse was appointed as head of the Council of Economic Advisers, a veteran from the Clinton and Obama administrations, she is the first African American woman to head the Council. The other two appointed Council economists are Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey, both were advisors to the President-elect’s campaign. Bernstein is a former senior economic advisor to then Vice President Biden and senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Boushey was an advisor to the Hilary Clinton Campaign in 2016, she is also President of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
As head of the Office of Management and Budget, President-elect Biden designated Neera Tanden, veteran of the Obama administration and the 2016 Hilary Clinton campaign, currently head of the Center for American Progress. She is the first Indo-American woman appointed to direct the Office.
As deputy secretary of the Treasury was designated Adewale Adeyemo, an immigrant from Nigeria and former senior international economic advisor in the Obama administration. Finally, Brain Deese was appointed to head the White House National Economic Council. Both Adeyemo and Deese are veterans from the Obama administration and were working at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm. Adeyemo in 2019 became president of the Obama Foundation.
At least three traits distinguish the new economic team. First, President-elect Biden did not go to Wall Street to recruit the new Treasury Secretary. Second. four of the six members of the team are labor economists and finally, all of them have experience in the policy making trenches.
*International analyst and consultant, former Director ECLAC Washington. Commentator on economic and financial issues for CNN en Español TV and radio, TELEMUNDO, UNIVISION and other media.
