Biden picks economic policy adviser
Posted: Friday, December 05, 2008 12:43 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Joe Biden
From NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro
In a nod to the Left, Jared Bernstein will serve as chief economist and economic policy adviser to Vice President-elect Biden, the Obama-Biden transition team announced today.
“Jared Bernstein is an acclaimed economist, and a proven, passionate advocate for raising the incomes of middle class families," Biden said in a statement. "His expertise and background in a wide range of domestic and international economic policies will be an invaluable asset to the Obama-Biden Administration. It’s an honor to have him on my team and I look forward to his advice and counsel.”
Bernstein has been an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that has been associated with most progressive part of the Democratic Party when it comes to economic matters -- and that's viewed as being to the left of the Brookings Institution. Bernstein also worked for Robert Reich him at the Labor Department during the Clinton years.
Most of the other economic policy advisers that have been plucked for the Obama White House and cabinet -- Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Peter Orszag -- have come from the more moderate Robert Rubin school of the Democratic Party.
*** UPDATE *** To suggest that Bernstein is pretty much in agreement with Rubin and his disciples on what to do regarding the current economic troubles, someone close to the transition passes along this recent New York Times op-ed that Bernstein and Rubin co-wrote. What's more, the transition source says that Berstein was recommended to Vice President-elect Biden by Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee.
Brief bio on Bernstein, per the transition, after the jump:
Jared Bernstein, Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice President
Jared Bernstein is an expert in the areas of federal, state and international economic policies, specifically the middle-class squeeze, income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, low-wage labor markets, poverty and international comparisons. Bernstein has been an economist at the Economic Policy Institute since 1992 and is a renowned author of several books and academic treatises on the economy and the middle class. From 1995-1996, he served as Deputy Chief Economist for the Department of Labor under Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Bernstein is on the Congressional Budget Office’s advisory committee and has been a contributor to the financial news station CNBC. He has also taught at Howard University, Columbia University and New York University. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts from the Manhattan School of Music; a Masters Degree in Social Work from the Hunter School of Social Work; a Masters Degree in Philosophy and Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Columbia University.
