A16 N THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALWEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2020
WASHINGTON — Soon after
Cecilia Rouse finished her first
stint as a White House economic
adviser, in the administration of
President Bill Clinton, a presti-
gious academic journal published
what would arguably become her
most famous research paper: a
study finding sexism in auditions
and hiring for symphony orches-
tras.
To complete that study, Ms.
Rouse and a co-author, Claudia
Goldin of Harvard, conducted
years of research. They worked
with orchestra managers and un-
ions to unearth records of audi-
tions dating back decades. “We
traveled from city to city,” Ms.
Goldin recalled, “rummaged
through dusty boxes and copied
hundreds of entries from yellow-
ing pieces of paper.”
The effort reflected both a focus
on the forces that hold people back
in the economy and a degree of dil-
igence in her research that Ms.
Rouse’s colleagues call trade-
marks of her second stint in the
White House, when President
Barack Obama tapped her to join
his Council of Economic Advisers.
And it is what friends and for-
mer colleagues say they expect
Ms. Rouse to bring to the council if
she is confirmed by the Senate to
lead it under President-elect Jo-
seph R. Biden Jr., a job that Mr. Bi-
den said on Tuesday he would re-
store to cabinet-level status after
it was demoted under President
Trump.
Ms. Rouse, who is dean of the
Princeton School of Public and In-
ternational Affairs, emphasized
her interest in workers, and what
hurts them and holds them back,
at an introductory event on Tues-
day with Mr. Biden and other
nominees for economic posts in
his administration. She said her
mother, a school psychologist, had
encouraged her to take an eco-
nomics course as a freshman in
college, which came during a na-
tional spike in unemployment.
“It was impossible to separate
what we were learning in the
classroom from what I knew was
going on in towns across the coun-
try,” Ms. Rouse said, “and I found
myself drawn to study the labor
market in all of its dimensions —
the reasons that jobs disappear,
the impact of education on peo-
ple’s job prospects, the ways we
can tear down barriers to job
growth and make it easier for peo-
ple to find long-lasting economic
security.”
Ms. Rouse will be a pioneer if
confirmed — the first Black chair
of the council. And she will take
her position during a sagging re-
covery from a pandemic reces-
sion, at a time when millions of
Americans have been out of work
for months since the virus first
surged through the United States.
Austan Goolsbee, who led the
council under Mr. Obama when
Ms. Rouse was a member, said he
expected Ms. Rouse to focus on
challenges facing workers in the
so-called gig economy — like driv-
ers for ride-sharing services like
Uber and Lyft — and on workers
who suffer long spells of unem-
ployment in the crisis.
In the aftermath of the 2008 fi-
nancial crisis, Mr. Goolsbee said,
“she was way ahead of everyone
on the issues of the long-term un-
employed. From the second the
thing began, she was saying,
we’re going to have to think about
the long-term unemployed and
how to get them out of unemploy-
ment.”
Along with her symphony pa-
per — which found women were
substantially more likely to be
hired for orchestras when partici-
pating in a “blind” audition with
their gender concealed — Ms.
Rouse’s research has included
work on school performance, edu-
cational vouchers and diversity in
the economics profession. Ms.
Goldin calls her “a leading expert
on core labor market issues as
well as those in the field of educa-
tion.”
In recent months, Ms. Rouse
has advocated new federal protec-
tions for workers in response to
the pandemic.
Cecilia Rouse is a dean at
Princeton University.
KRISTON JAE BETHEL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESBiden Picks
An Economist
With a Focus
On Workers
By JIM TANKERSLEY
and JEANNA SMIALEKnominee to lead the Council of
Economic Advisers. “The urgen-
cy of ending a devastating crisis.
And the opportunity to build a bet-
ter economy in its wake — an
economy that works for everyone,
brings fulfilling job opportunities
and leaves no one to fall through
the cracks.”
But those goals, which were at
the center of Mr. Biden’s cam-
paign, are likely to run into obsta-
cles in Congress, where Republi-
cans, who spent the past four
years on a spending spree, have
resurrected their concerns about
the federal deficit. They have cited
it as a reason to forgo the kind of
large stimulus package that Mr.
Biden and other top Democrats
have said is needed.
The political divisions were on
display Tuesday, as a bipartisan
group of centrist senators an-
nounced in the morning that they
were working on a $908 billion
compromise stimulus package.
By the afternoon, Senator Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky, the ma-
jority leader, announced that he
had been discussing his own plan
with administration officials and
Representative Kevin McCarthy
of California, the minority leader.
That package would be hun-
dreds of billions of dollars smaller
than the bipartisan plan — and
thus a nonstarter with Democrats.
But Mr. McConnell seemed to sug-
gest that President Trump would
not sign a more expansive bill, re-
minding Republicans in a private
conference call and reporters dur-
ing a news conference that a presi-
dential signature is needed.
The continued likelihood of con-
gressional gridlock before Inau-
guration Day threatens to saddle
Mr. Biden’s economic team with
dim prospects come Jan. 21, when
it will confront an economy that
has seen a slowdown in hiring
growth, manufacturing activity
and other key measures in recent
weeks. Millions of Americans are
set to lose unemployment assist-
ance at year’s end. Others could
face eviction and foreclosure as
government moratoriums expire.
“The pace of improvement has
moderated,” the Fed chair, Jerome
H. Powell, told the Senate Bank-
ing Committee on Tuesday, saying
the rise in virus cases was “con-
cerning and could prove challeng-
ing in the next few months.”
“The risk of overdoing it is less
than the risk of underdoing it,” Mr.
Powell said.
Administration officials have
shown little sign of worry about
recent economic developments,insisting the recovery is on track
while Mr. Trump continues his le-
gal quest to overturn his re-elec-
tion defeat at the polls.
Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin, appearing alongside
Mr. Powell, downplayed the
broader risks facing the economy
and blamed economic shutdowns
in some states for slowing
progress. While he called for tar-
geted relief for sectors that have
been hit hardest by the pandemic,
like restaurants and airlines, he
said the economy had recovered
faster than many had expected
and that the economy had “re-
gained 58 percent of the lost jobs.”
He defended his decision to end
several of the Fed’s emergency
lending programs on Dec. 31. He
has also requested that the central
bank return the Treasury funds
supporting those programs. Dem-
ocrats said the moves amounted
to economic sabotage.
“Either you’re purposefully try-
ing to stop President-elect Biden
and Janet Yellen from getting to
work for the people we all serve,
or you’re so delusional that you
think because the stock market is
back up, everything is fine,” said
Senator Sherrod Brown, Demo-
crat of Ohio. “Either way, it’s mal-
practice.”
Mr. Powell, who told lawmakers
that the Fed would have preferred
to keep those lending programs
going while acknowledging that it
was Mr. Mnuchin’s place to de-
cide, painted a more dire picture
of the economy. He pointed to con-
tinued uncertainty around the
speed of a vaccine rollout, the re-
ality that millions remain out of
work and the fact that small busi-
nesses could fail over the winter.
“We do have a long way to go,”
Mr. Powell said. “We’ll use our
tools until the danger is well andtruly past, and it may require help
from other parts of government as
well, including Congress.”
Republicans insist that the
economy is recovering and that
the United States does not need to
borrow more money for another
big relief package, while Demo-
crats insist that a large jolt of stim-
ulus is needed and that now is not
the time to worry about deficits.
“There’s a reason states and lo-
calities have to have a balanced
budget but we’re allowed to have a
deficit to deal with crises and
emergencies as we have in the
past,” Mr. Biden said. “We have to
keep vital public services run-
ning, have to give aid to local and
state governments to make sure
they can have law enforcement of-
ficers, firefighters and educators
as we did in 2009.”
After months of deadlock on
Capitol Hill, a bipartisan group of
senators tried to move things for-
ward with the $908 billion com-
promise proposal, funded in part
by repurposing the money that
Mr. Mnuchin clawed back from
the Fed lending programs.
The proposal, spearheaded by
two centrists — Senators Joe
Manchin, Democrat of West Vir-
ginia, and Susan Collins, Republi-
can of Maine — and a handful of
senators from both parties, has
not been publicly endorsed by ei-
ther Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Cali-
fornia or Mr. McConnell.
Intended as a stopgap to last
until March, it would restore fed-
eral jobless benefits that lapsed
over the summer, but at half the
rate, providing $300 a week for 18
weeks, and does not include an-
other round of checks for every
American. The measure would
provide $160 billion to help state,
local and tribal governments fac-
ing fiscal ruin — a fraction of whatDemocrats had sought. Also in-
cluded was $288 billion to help
small businesses, restaurants and
theaters, and a short-term federal
liability shield from coronavirus-
related lawsuits.
In contrast, the framework cir-
culated on Capitol Hill by top Re-
publicans does not include funds
for state and local governments
and curtails a short restoration of
federal unemployment benefits
even further.
“The advantage of our compro-
mise bill is it has bipartisan, bi-
cameral support,” Ms. Collins
said. “I want a bill that can be-
come law.”
The bipartisan plan is an at-
tempt to find a middle ground be-
tween the dueling stimulus pro-
posals that Democrats and Re-
publicans have haggled over for
months. Its cost is less than half of
what Democratic leaders had
pushed for in the weeks leading up
to the election but nearly double
the latest proposal from Republi-
can leaders.
It includes most of the main in-
gredients that Mr. Biden and
Democratic leaders have called
critical for a deal, a possible sign
that it could form a basis for a
compromise that Mr. Biden could
get behind.
Asked about the plan by report-
ers after his event with his eco-
nomic team, Mr. Biden replied: “I
just heard about it. I’ll take a look
at it when I get back.”
The fresh attempt at a biparti-
san compromise came as Ms.
Pelosi and Mr. Mnuchin held their
first phone discussion since late
October, when they had a flurry of
pre-election conversations that
failed to culminate in a deal. Ms.
Pelosi said she and Senator Chuck
Schumer of New York, the Demo-
cratic leader, had sent a new pro-posal of their own to Republican
leaders on Monday.
John Lettieri, the president of
the Economic Innovation Group
think tank in Washington, which
has pushed for more small-busi-
ness aid, said the bipartisan plan
“seems close to being the sweet
spot” for a possible compromise
— if one is possible.
Some Senate Republicans on
Tuesday reiterated opposition to
any deal that sends money to sup-
port state and local government
budgets, with Senator John Ken-
nedy of Louisiana challenging Mr.
Powell at the hearing about
whether states are really in such
bad straits and suggesting the
money would be used to shore up
shaky pension funds.
“I’ve always said, I think it’s an
area that’s worth looking,” Mr.
Powell said, noting that states are
among the largest employers in
the economy and that they pro-
vide critical services.
Mr. Biden’s appointees all
sounded an urgent tone as the in-
coming administration faces the
prospect of a double-dip reces-
sion.
His nominees, all of whom must
win Senate confirmation, talked
about the pain of the pandemic re-
cession, noting that it was falling
hardest on traditionally margin-
alized Americans and widening
the divide between the rich and
the poor.
Ms. Yellen, a former Fed chair
and an academic labor economist,
said she had gone into economics
“because I was concerned about
the toll of unemployment on peo-
ple, families and communities.”
She warned that inaction in the
face of the current economic crisis
“will produce a self-reinforcing
downturn causing yet more dev-
astation.”Amid Risks,
Biden Urges
‘Robust’ Plan
For Stimulus
Joseph R. Biden Jr. said any stimulus deal would fall far short of the trillions of dollars that Democratic leaders have insisted on.KRISTON JAE BETHEL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESFrom Page ANicholas Fandos contributed re-
porting.WASHINGTON — Speaking at
a Washington think tank in the
summer of 2016, Adewale
Adeyemo, President Barack Oba-
ma’s international economics ad-
viser, warned about the perils of
protectionism, explained how a
growing Chinese economy was
good for the world and talked up
the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a
trade deal he helped negotiate
that Democrats ultimately re-
jected.
Four years later, such talk
might sound out of touch with a
Democratic Party that has be-
come even more hawkish on
China and increasingly wary of
sprawling international trade
deals. But that was not a concern
for President-elect Joseph R. Bi-
den Jr., who this week tapped Mr.
Adeyemo to be deputy Treasury
secretary, solidifying his team
with another stalwart veteran of
the Obama administration who
would bring center-left economic
ideas, deep experience and diver-
sity to Mr. Biden’s top ranks.
Like many of Mr. Biden’s hires
so far, Mr. Adeyemo, who goes by
Wally, brings a mainstream policy
perspective with a background
that breaks barriers. Mr.
Adeyemo would be part of a his-
tory-making duo at Treasury: He
would be the first Black deputy at
the Treasury, serving with the
first female secretary, Janet L.
Yellen.
And like some of Mr. Biden’s
picks, the selection of Mr.
Adeyemo is coming under scru-
tiny from the left over his private-
sector work. In 2017, after the
Trump administration took over,
Mr. Adeyemo went to work for
BlackRock, the world’s largest as-
set manager, as a senior adviser
and interim chief of staff to Larry
Fink, its chief executive. He left
last year to become president of
the Obama Foundation, where he
managed day-to-day operations
and carried out its strategic plan.If confirmed, Mr. Adeyemo will
have risen to the Treasury’s No. 2
spot from humble beginnings.
Born in Nigeria, he emigrated
with his parents to the United
States when he was a baby and
settled in Southern California out-
side Los Angeles. His father was a
teacher, his mother a nurse. Mr.
Adeyemo, 39, and his younger
brother and sister grew up shar-
ing a room in a two-bedroom
apartment.
As he was introduced by Mr. Bi-
den on Tuesday, Mr. Adeyemo
talked about his desire to reduce
inequality in the United States
and increase the fortunes of the
middle class. He described his
roots growing up in a state that
was hit hard by the 2008 financial
crisis.
“In California’s Inland Empire,
where I had grown up in a work-
ing-class neighborhood, the Great
Recession hit us hard,” he said.
“We were one of the foreclosure
capitals of the United States. The
pain of this was real for me.”
Mr. Adeyemo attended the Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley,
where he was the president of the
students’ association, and went on
to get a law degree from Yale. His
interest in policy percolating, he
worked on the presidential cam-
paigns of John Kerry, John Ed-
wards and Mr. Obama.
Mr. Adeyemo joined the Treas-
ury Department in 2009, working
as deputy executive secretary to
Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.
Just over a year later, he was dis-
patched to the Consumer Finan-
cial Protection Bureau to help get
the new agency up and running.
There, he worked as chief of staff
for Elizabeth Warren, now a sena-
tor from Massachusetts, who had
come up with the idea for the con-
sumer bureau and was picked by
Mr. Obama to oversee the agen-
cy’s establishment.
The ability to toggle between
the likes of Mr. Geithner and Ms.
Warren was an early sign of Mr.Adeyemo’s knack for straddling
the moderate and progressive
wings of the Democratic Party’s
policymaking machine. At his
2015 confirmation hearing to be
the Treasury’s assistant secretary
for international markets and de-
velopment, Ms. Warren offered ef-
fusive praise.
“He remembers who he grew
up with, and he tries every day to
make this a better country,” said
Ms. Warren, who became one of
the most prominent progressives
within the Democratic Party. A
spokeswoman said Ms. Warren
would support Mr. Adeyemo’s
nomination as deputy secretary.
Mr. Adeyemo ultimately be-
came deputy chief of staff at the
Treasury, serving under Jacob J.
Lew. In that role, he was im-
mersed in many issues including
sanctions and international trade.
During the negotiations over the
12-country Trans-Pacific Partner-
ship, Mr. Adeyemo was focused on
brokering a deal over currency
provisions in the agreement’s for-
eign exchange chapter.
Mr. Lew recalled Mr. Adeye-
mo’s flying across the world from
Asia to Latin America and engag-ing in economic shuttle diplomacy
to broker an agreement that
would create greater transparen-
cy and enforcement of foreign ex-
change policy in the deal.
“He put together an approach
that frankly has withstood the test
of time, even though TPP has not
had U.S. participation,” Mr. Lew
said in an interview. “It became
the model of how currency issues
were dealt with in subsequent
trade agreements.”
In 2015, Mr. Obama recruited
Mr. Adeyemo to the White House
to be his international economic
adviser on the National Security
Council. He represented the presi-
dent at the Group of 20 and Group
of 7 summits and steered the in-
ternational economic policy
agenda across government agen-
cies.
The soft-spoken and deliberate
Mr. Adeyemo’s approach will pro-
vide a stark contrast to the Trump
administration’s combative tone
in economic diplomacy. At the
2016 event sponsored by the Cen-
ter for Strategic and International
Studies, Mr. Adeyemo described
the importance of encouraging
China to liberalize its markets bymaking the case that doing so was
in its own economic interests —
and in the interests of the United
States.
“A growing Chinese economy is
an economy where U.S. compa-
nies can sell goods and services,”
he said. “And a growing Chinese
economy is something that will
help boost global growth.”
That multilateral approach to
dealing with China could be a
complication for Mr. Adeyemo at
his confirmation hearing, as Re-
publicans have become accus-
tomed to Mr. Trump’s confronta-
tional stance.
And Mr. Adeyemo’s work at
BlackRock will probably raise
questions from some Democrats,
as progressives have already ex-
pressed their displeasure.
Robert Kuttner, founder of The
American Prospect, a progressive
publication, warned this week
that BlackRock could stand to
gain if Mr. Adeyemo got the No. 2
job at the Treasury, saying he
could work to prevent tougher
regulatory oversight of the asset
manager.
A BlackRock spokesman did
not respond to a request for com-
ment.
A Biden transition team aide
said Mr. Adeyemo, who was hired
to establish BlackRock’s internal
think tank, did not have any busi-
ness responsibility for or
oversight of its investments or
policy decisions.
David S. Cohen, the Treasury’s
under secretary for terrorism and
financial intelligence during the
Obama administration, said Mr.
Adeyemo’s familiarity with the in-
ner workings of the Treasury and
experience with domestic policy,
international economics and na-
tional security would make him a
strong partner for Ms. Yellen, who
is an academic economist and for-
mer central banker.
“In some respects, he’s a per-
fect complement to Yellen at
Treasury,” Mr. Cohen said.For Treasury Post, Moderate Who Would Break a Racial Barrier
Adewale Adeyemo was named by President-elect Joseph R. Bi-
den Jr. as his choice for deputy secretary of the Treasury.CSPANBy ALAN RAPPEPORTTransition in WashingtonFinances and Recovery