Judy Shelton, whose controversial economic ideas caused the Senate to block her nomination to the Federal Reserve Board, has been appointed as an advisor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The Treasury Department said Mr. Shelton will advise Mr. Bessent on currency policy, “with a particular focus on assessing China’s financial situation.”
Mr. Shelton is not known as a China expert. She wrote “Monetary Meltdown” in 1988, about the need for a unified international monetary system, and “The Coming Collapse of the Soviet Union” the following year. Prior to joining the Treasury Department, Mr. Shelton was a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a free market think tank, and before that at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. She has a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Utah.
“Throughout her career, she has specialized in analyzing the domestic monetary and fiscal conditions of countries and their impact on exchange rates,” the Treasury Department said in a statement late Friday.
A bipartisan group of senators, including all Democrats and a handful of Republicans, rejected President Donald Trump’s nomination of Shelton to lead the Fed in 2019, citing his views on the Fed’s independence, support for the gold standard and questions about whether the United States needs a central bank.
Her appointment comes at a time when the Treasury appears to be in turmoil over senior appointments. A recent Wall Street Journal article listed seven Senate-confirmed officials who left the department by the end of August. Only one position is filled.
Mr. Bessent recently appointed former Jefferies chief market strategist David Zervos as a counselor, the same position as Mr. Shelton. Neither Shelton nor Zervos requires Senate confirmation.
