Biden announced new appointments to the White House economic team

President Joe Biden nominated Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Lael Brainard to head the National Economic Council and said he would nominate his adviser Jared Bernstein as White House chief economist.

Biden strengthens the economic team amid declining risk in the nation’s economy, and Republican control of the House of Representatives.

Biden will nominate Brainard to replace Brian Deese, who announced his departure earlier this month, and Bernstein, if confirmed by the Senate, will replace Cecilia Rose, who returns to Princeton University after two years at the White House, as head of the Office of Commodity Exchange.

Biden also appointed Bharat Ramamurthy, deputy director of the National Economic Council, as advisor on strategic economic communications, and Commodity Exchange Administration member Heather Boushey will become chief economist of the administration’s investment cabinet.

Joelle Gamble, chief economist for the Department of Labor, has been 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 at a time when the president is trying to convince skeptical Americans that his economic policies are producing good results. The new team will help control trillions in new federal spending on everything from semiconductor manufacturing to building roads and bridges to enacting environmental tax breaks.

The Fed is trying to implement a “soft landing” of the economy, which involves lowering inflation without causing a recession. According to the Fed, inflation is now more than double the 2% target.

Consumer prices rose in January, but showed the lowest annual increase since October 2021, indicating that the target can be met.

The next director of the National Economic Council and chairman of the Office of Commodity Exchange will help shape the Biden administration’s economic policy, and in particular, prevent the country from defaulting in a showdown with the U.S. House of Representatives.

Republicans say they will not raise the national debt ceiling without cutting federal spending. The White House says it will not discuss spending cuts without a preliminary vote on the debt ceiling.

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