Fed’s Brainard at top of Biden’s Treasury Secretary list: RPT

Joe Biden is looking to Federal Reserve’s Lael Brainard as his potential Treasury Secretary if he’s victorious this November. Yahoo Finance’s Brian Cheung joins Zack Guzman to discuss.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Some hot gossip to discuss when it comes to Joe Biden's potential pick here for treasury secretary. New reports looking at Fed Governor Lael Brainard potentially edging out Senator Elizabeth Warren, which some people have said she might be one of those names potentially to be tapped.

And here to discuss that with us is Yahoo Finance's Fed Reporter, Brian Cheung. And Brian, I mean, Lael Brainard. We've talked about her on the show before. What do you make of it?

BRIAN CHEUNG: Well, absolutely, Zack. And as this election season does come up, that means a lot of hot gos on the personnel if there is a new administration. And it does appear to be the case, as Bloomberg is reporting, that current Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard could be at the top of his list if the Biden administration does take the win this election, that she would have the Department of the Treasury.

And apparently this reporting is saying that she was actually under consideration during the last Clinton administration, of course. Trump winning that election did sink her chances at heading the Treasury, although the new Bloomberg reporting says that she could be at the top of Biden's list now.

Now, what's important to note is that she does have a working relationship with the Treasury already. She actually served as the under treasury secretary of international affairs under the Obama administration-- which of course, during the time was Vice President Biden's time in the second office there.

Now, this is also interesting, because some of my sourcing has told me that she is still very much interested in staying at the Federal Reserve. It could definitely be the case that she actually might be interested in maybe the Fed chairman job, if it is indeed the case that Biden wanted to replace Chairman Powell if he does win election.

Of course, all of this contingent on who wins the election. If President Trump does end up winning the election, the concern is that there could be a change at the top of the reserve anyway. As you recall, all of those tweets during 2019, President Trump calling current Chairman Powell someone who can't putt, having no guts, no sense, no vision.

So it's probably unlikely that he would renominate Powell for a second term if he does win re-election. But again, it does seem very interesting to see Lael Brainard at the top of a possible Democratic administration if the White House does change at the beginning of next year.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, after the way he's handled all this, perhaps some of those views have changed. Powell getting a lot of attaboy's from the wider economic community. But Brian Cheung, appreciate you bringing us that.