President Joe Biden on Tuesday named Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Lael Brainard to head the National Economic Council and said he would appoint his adviser Jared Bernstein to of chief White House economist.
Biden is bolstering the economics team amid declining risks in the nation’s economy and Republican control of the House of Representatives.
The White House has said Biden will appoint Brainard to replace Brian Deese, who announced his resignation earlier this month, and Bernstein, if confirmed by the Senate, will replace Cecilia Rose, who returns to Princeton after two years of job, as head of the Commodity Exchange Office at the White House.
Biden also named Bharat Ramamurthy, deputy director of the National Economic Council, as strategic economic communications adviser, and Heather Bousshi, a member of the Commodity Exchanges Authority, as chief economist of the administration’s investment cabinet. .
The Labor Department’s chief economist, Joel Gamble, was named one of Brainard’s deputies. The statement did not mention who could potentially replace Brainard at the Fed.
The change in Biden’s economic team comes as the president tries to convince skeptical Americans that his economic policies are working. The new team will help control trillions in new federal spending on everything from semiconductor manufacturing to building roads and bridges and environmental tax credits.
The Fed is trying to achieve a “soft landing” for the economy, which consists of reducing inflation without causing a recession. Inflation is now more than double its target of 2%, according to the Fed.
Consumer prices rose in January but posted the smallest annual gain since October 2021, indicating the target can be met.
The next director of the National Economic Council and chairman of the Office of Commodity Exchanges will help shape the economic policy of the Biden administration and, in particular, prevent the country from defaulting in the battle with the US House of Representatives.
Republicans say they won’t raise the debt ceiling without cutting federal budget spending. The White House has said it will not discuss spending cuts without first voting on the debt ceiling.
