Lael Brainard is set to lead the National Economic Council.
Yuri Gripas/UPI/Alamy Live News
President Joe Biden is set to name Lael Brainard, currently vice chair of the Federal Reserve, as the head of his National Economic Council.
She will succeed Brian Deese, who plans to step down this month, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The NEC advises the president on policy and personnel decisions for the executive branch of government.
Brainard, 61, takes the role as the U.S. faces faster inflation, the highest interest rates in a decade, and slowing growth. The move may put her in a position to succeed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen if Biden wins re-election in 2024. Brainard was previously an official in the Treasury Department and an advisor to President Bill Clinton.
At the Fed, where she has served since 2014, she has supported Chairman Jerome Powell’s campaign of interest-rate increases, but has also warned about being too aggressive. She has opposed measures that would have weakened financial regulation.
Brainard, an influential voice at the Fed, may have a role in appointing her successor, the Journal said. Candidates may include Fed governor Lisa Cook and Boston Fed President Susan Collins. Other names mentioned were Harvard professor Karen Dynan and University of California, Berkeley economist Christina Romer, previously an advisor to President Barack Obama.
Brainard’s next role isn’t the only big news for global economic policy this week. Kazuo Ueda was nominated on Tuesday to become the next governor of the
Bank of Japan,
succeeding Haruhiko Kuroda. Ueda, a 71-year-old university professor, has argued in the past that the BoJ shouldn’t withdraw its monetary stimulus program too early.
Write to Brian Swint at brian.swint@barrons.com
Credit: marketwatch.com