When Donald Trump became President, he made clear the type of people he wanted on his economic team:
- “I want people that made a fortune!”
- “…in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person.”
- ‘Why did you appoint a rich person to be in charge of the economy?’ … I said, ‘because that’s the kind of thinking we want.’
Trump put together the wealthiest administration in modern American history. After doing so, he bragged that “I believe we’re in the process of putting together one of the great cabinets that has ever been assembled in the history of our nation,”
Ironically this great cabinet did not remain intact for very long. After just 32 months in office, the turnover rate in Trump’s cabinet exceeded the turnover in the first 48 months of the five previous administrations.
Fortunately, Joe Biden has taken a different approach in putting his team together. While his appointments have been financially successful and may be millionaires, that is not the criteria Biden used in selecting them. Instead, his emphasis has been on individuals who have a background in public service and academia with an emphasis on labor markets, economic policy, and inequality rather than individuals with backgrounds in corporate American, Wall Street, and making a fortune, all traits Trump favored.
Leading Biden’s economic team will be Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Yellen previously served as the Chairperson of the Federal Reserve, helping to lead the country out of the Great Recession, which was the greatest economic contraction since the Great Depression. Until she left her position as Chairperson of the Fed, her entire career had been spent in either in academic or public service. Upon leaving the Fed, she became a Distinguished Fellow in Residence at the Brookings Institution. She is a Keynesian economist who has had a focus on the economic welfare of the middle-class.
Serving under Yellen as the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury will be Wally Adeyemo. He is the son of Nigerian immigrants and was the first Chief of Staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He has served in a wide variety of positions in government and non-profit policy organization positions. The experience of his family gives him important insights into the economic challenges faced the immigrant community.
Cecilia Rouse, who served on the Council of Economic Advisors during the Obama Administration, will become the first black person to serve as Chair of the Council. She is currently the dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Her area of expertise is labor economics with a particular emphasis on the economics of education.
Jared Bernstein will serve on the Council of Economic Advisors. Previously, he was the Chief Economist and Economic Advisor to Biden when he was Vice President. During his career Bernstein has focused on labor economics and policies that will benefit middle class working families.
The third member of the Council of Economic Advisors will be Heather Boushey, who as the CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth focused on economic inequality. Previously she served as Chief Economist for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the Obama Administration.
Finally, the final member of Biden’s economic team will be Neera Tanden who will serve as the Director of the Office of Management and the Budget. Tanden has stated: “Budgets are not abstractions. I’m here today because of social programs. Because of budgetary choices”. Tanden’s parents were immigrants from India. After divorcing, her mother spent nearly two years on government assistance. She worked for Hillary Clinton during her campaign for President.
Unlike Trump’s appointees, the Biden economic team has a long history of public service and expertise in the economics of labor, the middle class, and income inequality. They also have a personal history as individuals who have experience and familiarity with the challenges faced by middle class working people and the poor. This contrasts with the Trump Administration’s focus on individuals who “made a fortune” and were “rich” to formulate and guide economic policy. It is a welcomed change.
