Biden names Fed Vice Chairwoman Brainard to head Economic Council
President Joe Biden on Tuesday named Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Lael Brainard as the new director of his National Economic Council, making the Ph.D. economist a key point person for coordinating policy, talking with business leaders and negotiating with Congress.
Biden also nominated longtime adviser Jared Bernstein to be chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Brainard and Bernstein would be moving into top spots at a crucial juncture for the U.S. economy. Unemployment is at 3.4%, near a 54-year low, but inflation remains persistently high at 6.4% and has contributed to fears of a coming recession.
Brainard will succeed Brian Deese, who helped handle several key legislative wins for Biden, including coronavirus relief, infrastructure spending and investments in computer chip production.
Brainard, 61, holds a doctoral degree in economics from Harvard University. During the Clinton administration, she worked as a deputy director for the National Economic Council. She was also under secretary for international affairs at Treasury during Barack Obama’s presidency. Brainard joined the Fed in 2014 as a governor and Biden nominated her to become vice chairwoman.
She also forms half of an administration power couple, with her husband, Kurt Campbell, serving on the National Security Council as the administration’s “Asian czar.”
Bernstein, 67, is already a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, where he would succeed current chair Cecilia Rouse, who is returning to Princeton University. With an interest in labor markets and income inequality, Bernstein worked as a vice presidential aide for Biden during Obama’s presidency. He received his doctoral degree in social welfare from Columbia University.
Biden said Brainard “brings an extraordinary depth of domestic and international economic expertise” to the role and hailed Bernstein as a “brilliant thinker and one of my closest and longest-serving economic advisers.”
Bernstein must be confirmed by the Senate. Brainard does not need to be confirmed.