Adeyemo ‘Honoured’ as Biden Unveils ‘First Rate’ Economic Team

US President-elect Joe Biden says his economic team is “first rate” and will help build an economy that works for all Americans.

Biden introduced key members of the team Tuesday in Delaware, including former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to become Treasury secretary.

 Biden described Yellen as one of the “most important economic thinkers of our time.”

She would be the first female Treasury secretary if confirmed by the Senate.

Many have hailed Biden for having a very diverse economic team.

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Nigerian-born Adewale Adeyemo will also make history by becoming the first-ever Nigerian-American Deputy Secretary of the US Treasury.

While accepting his nomination on Tuesday, Adeyemo said he is “honoured to be part of a very talented team and to work with them and the American people to build an economy that gives everyone a chance and turn the nation from crisis to hope”.

During the tenure of President Barack Obama, he was the deputy director of the National Economic Council. He was also the assistant secretary for international markets and development at the Treasury Department; deputy chief of staff of the Treasury Department in 2012; Chief of staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for 16 months, starting in 2010.

Biden also introduced Neera Tanden as his choice to run the White House budget office. Tanden’s nomination, however, has encountered early disapproval from some Senate Republicans, who will vote on her nomination.

The President-elect also named his chair and members of the Council of Economic Advisers. He says the CEA chair will serve in the Cabinet.

Biden unveiled his economic team amid growing concerns about the pace of the nation’s economic recovery as governments reimpose restrictions to curtail the surging coronavirus pandemic.

Biden has assembled a team of liberal advisers who have long focused on the nation’s workers and government efforts to address economic inequality, as unemployment remains high and as the COVID-19 outbreak widens the gulf between average Americans and the nation’s most well off.

The virus, which has killed more than 268,000 Americans, is resurgent across the country amid holiday travel and colder weather sending people indoors.

Lillian Jijingi