(Washington) Lael Brainard, appointed vice-president of the American central bank (Fed) on Monday by Joe Biden, is the institution’s only Democratic governor, a fervent supporter of a strictly regulated financial system, and specialist in the international economy .
This skilful negotiator, former advisor to Bill Clinton and a senior official under the Obama administration, was in the running to succeed Jerome Powell, the current president of the Fed, to whom Joe Biden has finally given a second term.
At 59, she has been one of the governors of the powerful US Federal Reserve since 2014. She had been appointed by Barack Obama, and is even, since 2018, the only Democrat.
This monetary “dove”, favorable to an accommodating policy – as opposed to “hawks” – has sometimes taken a position against the tide of its colleagues at the Fed.
“She was a strong voice in favor of banking regulation”, greeted in an interview with AFP Don Kohn who was vice-president of the Fed before Lael Brainard joined it, and works today with the Brookings Institution.
She had in particular “(worried) about the problems of financial stability, pushing back to a certain extent the deregulatory tendency of officials (of the Fed) appointed by Trump”, he stressed.
Climate change and financial stability
“Another element raised in his speeches is to what extent a strong economy is beneficial and can attract those who are left behind, those who are at the bottom of the salary scale, or have abandoned the labor market”, further notes the former vice president of the Fed.
Another subject on which she has spoken regularly, and which Joe Biden highlighted on Monday: the risks posed by climate change on financial stability. In November 2020, she had thus judged “vital” to “correctly” assess and treat the consequences.
However, part of the left wing of the Democrats had criticized her for too timid action on climate change, but also on China, when she was Undersecretary of the Treasury to Democratic President Barack Obama, the media recall. Americans. She had then, in particular, negotiated with Beijing on alleged manipulations of the yuan.
In 2011, during the eurozone debt crisis, she pressured the European Union to adopt an ambitious rescue plan for over-indebted countries.
Daughter of a diplomat, Lael Brainard was born in Hamburg (Germany), and spent part of her childhood in Poland, then communist. She graduated from the prestigious Harvard University and was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Her name had been mentioned for the post of Secretary of the Treasury when Joe Biden arrived at the White House in January 2021. It was ultimately Janet Yellen who had been appointed.
A mother of three daughters, Lael Brainard is married to Kurt Campbell, who is the India-Pacific coordinator at the National Security Council, a post to which he, too, was appointed by Joe Biden.