United States president-elect Donald Trump has named economist Stephen Miran as his choice to chair the Council of Economic Advisers.
Miran is a senior strategist at Hudson Bay Capital Management and a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative domestic policy think tank. He also served as a Treasury Department senior economic advisor during Trump’s first term.
“Steve will work with the rest of my Economic Team to deliver a Great Economic Boom that lifts up all Americans,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social.
Miran has strongly criticised the Federal Reserve and its chair Jerome Powell. In March, he co-authored a paper for the Manhattan Institute arguing that Federal Reserve board members’ terms should be shortened, and members should be removable by the president.
“The Fed’s current governance has facilitated groupthink that has led to significant monetary-policy errors while allowing the Fed the flexibility to unwisely expand its remit into inherently political areas such as credit rationing and banking regulation,” Miran and co-writer Dan Katz said.
Miran has also claimed that the Treasury Department manipulates financial conditions by issuing debt in a way that would lower real borrowing costs.
The department denied this allegation. “I can assure you 100% that there is no such strategy,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in July.
The Council of Economic Advisers typically has three members, and its chair is subject to confirmation by the Senate. It advises the president on economic policy, and develops the annual Economic Report of the President.