6. Biden's economic power players
Here are some of the players in the administration who have President Biden's ear on the economy and will help shape Biden-era policy.
Why it matters: The latest jobs report cements the gravity of the crisis Biden's economic team has to tackle as it works on the most immediate challenge: pushing a massive $1.9 trillion rescue plan through Congress.
Here are some of the players in the administration who have President Biden's ear on the economy and will help shape Biden-era policy.
Why it matters: The latest jobs report cements the gravity of the crisis Biden's economic team has to tackle as it works on the most immediate challenge: pushing a massive $1.9 trillion rescue plan through Congress.
Among the names to know: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who served as Federal Reserve chair under Obama.
Brian Deese: most recently an executive at BlackRock who headed up sustainable investing but who also served as deputy director of the National Economic Council under Obama.
Susan Rice, who in this elevated role will oversee major portions of Biden's “Build Back Better” plan, as Axios' Margaret Talev reported.
Jared Bernstein: a longtime economic adviser to Biden and now deputy on the Council of Economic Advisers.
What ties them together: "They clearly have as one of their core values how policy will affect racial equity in a way that I think is new," Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told Axios.
- "I've had plenty of interactions with administration folks to know that [equitable policy] really is truly front and center" for them, says Shierholz, who worked alongside Bernstein at the nonprofit think tank in years past.
Between the lines: Congressional Democrats have a powerful foothold now thanks to a (slim) Senate majority, with some taking the helm of key committees that will shape the business world.
- One example ... Sen. Elizabeth Warren will join the Finance Committee, which among other things oversees tax legislation — a cornerstone of Biden's "Build Back Better" plan.
- That committee's new chair, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, told CNBC this week he'll prioritize tax reform.
- Others include: The new chair of the Budget Committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders, who will also help steer Biden's economic policies through Congress, plus Sen. Sherrod Brown, the new Banking Committee chair.
What they're saying: The White House economic team is in "complete solidarity" that the rescue plan is "of the magnitude to meet the challenges we face," Bernstein told reporters on Friday.
By the numbers: Over 10 million Americans are considered unemployed. Of those, 40% are "long-term unemployed" — i.e. out of work for over 6 months.
- There are 4 million fewer people in the labor force — meaning they have given up looking for work altogether — than before the pandemic hit.
What to watch: The team's first big test is weeks away.
- Unemployment benefits for millions of Americans will expire without additional action — at a time when the labor market is still fragile and the virus is still raging as the vaccine rollout gets underway.
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