Breakfast with Biden’s top economic adviser

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Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, defended “Bidenomics” at a Monitor Breakfast – one of her first gatherings with reporters since joining the White House.

Bryan Dozier/Special to the Christian Science Monitor

Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, speaks at a Monitor Breakfast on June 29 in Washington.

July 4, 2023

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Washington

Lael Brainard is someone to watch. She’s President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, and until recently was vice chair of the Federal Reserve – the nation’s central bank. A Harvard-trained economist, she could someday be the Fed’s chair or U.S. Treasury secretary.

So we were delighted when Dr. Brainard agreed to appear at the Monitor Breakfast on June 29, the day after President Biden had delivered what was billed as a major economic address in Chicago. After some hesitation, the president has now embraced “Bidenomics” as the term of art to describe his plans for the economy – and a catch-all for his economic performance thus far.

Dr. Brainard was all business at our breakfast, touting what she calls Mr. Biden’s economic achievements: low unemployment, declining inflation, and continued economic growth, despite predictions of recession. She also pitched his continuing efforts to expand the middle class.

Yet Americans still give Mr. Biden low marks on his handling of the economy; only 34% approve, according to a recent Associated Press poll. That’s a serious liability for him as he seeks reelection. My article on the breakfast focused on this seeming perception gap. The audio of the breakfast can be found here on the Monitor’s YouTube channel.

After taking over as director of the White House’s National Economic Council in February, Dr. Brainard is now becoming more public in her advocacy for Mr. Biden’s record. She appeared in the White House briefing room for the first time earlier this week, and then spoke at our reporters’ breakfast.

We hope she’ll come back, because the nation is in a critical period: Can the United States tame inflation without forcing the economy into recession, and in the process, maintain low unemployment?

It’s also worth noting that, at a time of global turmoil, Dr. Brainard brings an international perspective to the table. Her résumé includes time as undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs. As the daughter of a diplomat, she was born in Germany and grew up there and in Poland during the Cold War.

It so happens that two of my German reporter friends attended the breakfast, Annett Meiritz from the newspaper Handelsblatt and Juliane Schäuble from Der Tagesspiegel. After the breakfast ended, they both came right up to Dr. Brainard for a quick chat. I told them I thought she was fluent in German – or at least that’s what I had read in a Washington Post profile.

Dr. Brainard demurred. “Oh no,” she said. “My German is very rusty.” My friends didn’t test her, but I suspect she’s better than she thinks.

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