Biden nominates a Latina economist for Fed Governor

He american President, Joe Biden, nominated this friday at Colombian-American economist Adriana Kugler to be Federal Reserve Governor (Fed), which would make it the first latin to be part of the board that leads the US body.

Kugler is currently the executive director of the World Bank Group for the United States. According to the White House statement, it is a labor market expert, international economy and applied econometricsand has published in the main journals on the subject.

was appointed economist head of the Department of Labor under the Barack Obama Administration (2009-2017), of which Biden was vice president, and has also been part of the science board, Technology and Economic policy of the United States National Academies of Sciences.

His nomination must be ratified by the Senate, but Democrats are in control of that chamber, so no hurdles are expected. If confirmed, it will be first latin in assuming that responsibility in the history of the organization, founded in December 1913.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Committee, Democrat Bob Menéndez, had complained in February that there had never been any Hispanic in his top positions. "Because it is important? Because it is the main minority in the country, ”he said then.

“With today's announcement, we are opening a new chapter in the history of the Fed, which for 109 years never had latinos or latinas at higher levels of leadership. We are finally giving the 62 million Latinos who call this country our home a seat at the table where the most important decisions on monetary policy are made, ”he added this Friday.

Biden also nominated pit Philip Jefferson, current member of the Fed Board of Governors, 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 position he has held since 2022 and was set to expire in January 2024. From 2011 to 2012, under President Obama, he was a Senior Economist on the Council of Economic Advisers, and has also advised the Treasury Department on International Affairs.

The Fed's Board of Governors is made up of seven people and his 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 one halfway, as in the case of Cook, she can be chosen.

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

As Menéndez stressed, with today's three appointments “Biden is signaling that the hopes and dreams of African-American and Latino Americans are fundamental to the future of the United States. Simply put, we are witnessing the story unfold in real time.”