Biden nominates a Latina economist for Fed Governor

The US president, Joe Biden, nominated this Friday the Colombian-American economist Adriana Kugler to be governor of the Federal Reserve (Fed), which would make her the first Latina to be part of the board that leads the US organization.

Kugler is currently the executive director of World Bank Group for the United States. According to the White House statement, she is an expert in labor markets, international economics, and applied econometrics, and has published in leading journals on the subject.

She was appointed Chief Economist of the Department of Labor under the Barack Obama Administration (2009-2017), of which Biden He was Vice President, and has also been part of the Board of Science, Technology and Economic Policy of the National Academies of Sciences of the United States.

His nomination must be ratified by the Senate, but Democrats are in control of that chamber, so no hurdles are expected. If confirmed, according to the US media, she will be the first Latina to assume that responsibility in the history of the organization, founded in December 1913.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Committee, the Democrat Bob Menendez, had complained in February that in these 109 years there had not been any Hispanic there. “Because it is important? Because it is the main minority in the country“, said.

Biden also nominated this Friday Philip Jeffersoncurrent member of the Board of Governors of the fed, for the vice-presidency of the group. The economist has held in the past, among other positions, as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty at Davidson College.

His nomination joins that of Lisa Cook as governor, a post that she has held since 2022 and which was to expire in January 2024. From 2011 to 2012, under the presidency of Obamawas a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers, and has also advised the Treasury Department on International Affairs.

The Board of Governors of the fed It is made up of seven people and its mandate is 14 years. Every two years a new term begins and a person who covers the entire period cannot repeat the position; but if she joins to complete a half term, as in the case of Cook, she can be elected.

The Fed is chaired by Jerome Powell and the vice presidency has been vacant since Lael Brainard he was nominated in February as director of the White House National Economic Council. Jefferson would be the second black vice president in the history of the Fed, after Roger Ferguson (1999-2016).

Source: EFE