As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to enter the White House in January, revamping the economy and addressing the country’s massive unemployment crisis due to COVID-19 will be at the top of his administration’s agenda.
A key advisor for Biden’s recovery team is Jared Bernstein, a longtime Biden confidant and progressive economist known for his advocacy on behalf of workers and the middle class. Bernstein will be a key aide for Biden, being named as a member of the Council of Economic Advisors Here are Blue Tent’s five things to know about Jared Bernstein.
He grew up studying music but found his calling in economics
Bernstein grew up in the suburbs surrounding New York City in the 1960s and ’70s and began traveling to Greenwich Village at a young age to explore his love of jazz music. He moved to the city to attend college at the Manhattan School of Music, but took a turn toward social work and economic policy because he felt, as Bernstein told his alma mater in 2018, “if you’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem.”
Bernstein would go on to earn master’s degrees in social work and philosophy, as well as a Ph.D. in social welfare from Columbia University.
Though Bernstein holds his share of advanced degrees, he’s spent his life in policy
While finishing his Ph.D., Bernstein began working for the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, D.C., a progressive think tank that produces research and policy papers on labor market issues. Bernstein also served in President Bill Clinton’s Department of Labor, working as deputy chief economist under then-Labor Secretary Robert Reich. In his years as a policy wonk, Bernstein has advocated for increases to the minimum wage, a full employment program, and a more progressive tax system to fight inequality.
Bernstein was Biden’s chief economist and helped develop President Barack Obama’s response to the 2008 financial crisis
After his time in government, Bernstein returned to EPI to run the think tank’s Living Standards program. In 2008, he advised Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and subsequently began working in the White House. Along with acting as chief economist for then-Vice President Biden, Bernstein was on the five-person economic team that met with President Obama daily as he dealt with the 2008 financial collapse. He worked with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, economist and banker Peter Orszag and Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer to craft the administration’s stimulus and industry bailout policies. In 2011, Bernstein left the administration to become a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank focused on poverty, inequality and fiscal policy.
During the 2020 elections, Bernstein served as an advisor and unity task force member for Joe Biden
As the 2020 Democratic primary played out, Bernstein praised Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren’s focus on healthcare and the economy, but when Biden wrapped up the nomination, Bernstein became one of only a handful of publicly acknowledged economic advisors to his campaign. When Biden and Sanders created a set of unity task forces meant to bridge the Democratic Party’s ideological divide, Biden tapped Bernstein to be a member of the economic team.
Bernstein is a top prospect to join Biden’s White House as an economic advisor
Of Biden’s campaign advisors, Bernstein was perhaps the best qualified for a post in the new administration. He not only advised the president before, but did so in the midst of another major economic crisis. Bernstein is well-liked by Biden and many of the progressives that the new president will need to keep happy—Bernstein’s work has been favorably cited by such publications as The American Prospect and Jacobin. Likewise, his appointment could assuage many on the left concerned about the influence of Wall Street and more controversial advisors. Bernstein would likely be uncontested by fellow Democrats on the left or in the center.
This article has been updated to reflect that Bernstein has been tapped to serve on the CEA.
