Trump picks Miran to head his Council of Economic Advisers

Skylar Woodhouse, Bloomberg News on Dec 22, 2024

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President-elect Donald Trump is nominating Stephen Miran to lead his Council of Economic Advisers, enlisting a former Treasury official who served in Washington during his first administration.

“Steve will work with the rest of my economic team to deliver a great economic boom that lifts up all Americans,” Trump said in a statement Sunday on his Truth Social platform.

As the top White House economist, Miran is set to advise Trump on policy and be a prominent face for selling those decisions to the public. Miran, whose post requires Senate confirmation, was a senior economic policy adviser at the Treasury Department during Trump’s first term.

Miran, a fellow at the New York-based Manhattan Institute, co-authored a paper with economist Nouriel Roubini in July that alleged the Treasury Department had manipulated the issuance of U.S. securities in a way that lowers real borrowing costs across the economy.

The paper, published by Hudson Bay Capital, echoed a line of attack by some Republican politicians, who accused Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen of gaming U.S. debt auctions to juice the economy and help President Joe Biden.

Yellen rejected the claim by Roubini and Miran. In a Bloomberg interview, she said there was “no such strategy,” adding: “We have never, ever discussed anything of the sort.”

Miran said in a social media post Sunday he looks forward “to working to help implement the President’s policy agenda to create a booming, noninflationary economy that brings prosperity to all Americans.”

Trump has vowed to renew expiring tax cuts and expand or offer new breaks or credits, in part to ease high prices faced by U.S. households. He has threatened sweeping tariffs on foreign trading partners, arguing it will spur companies to return manufacturing to the US.

The president-elect has dismissed criticism from most economists that his agenda, including promises to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, risks raising prices for consumers and expanding the U.S. national debt.

Economic concerns and inflation consistently ranked as top concerns for voters ahead of the Nov. 5 election in which Trump won a second term and Republicans gained control of both chambers of Congress.

During Trump’s first term, the CEA chairman’s post was filled by Kevin Hassett, followed by Tomas Philipson and Tyler Goodspeed, both of whom served in an acting capacity.

Hassett was a regular presence on television, defending the president’s economic policies. A strong advocate of Trump’s tax policies, Hassett is set to return to the White House after the president-elect picked him in November to head his second-term National Economic Council.

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