Looks like the first Kossack has been named to the new administration--if you don't count Barack Obama himself.
Jared Bernstein has been named chief economist and economic policy advisor to Vice President-Elect Joe Biden.
Joe Biden issued a statement this morning explaining his appointment:
Jared Bernstein is an acclaimed economist, and a proven, passionate advocate for raising the incomes of middle class families. His expertise and background in a wide range of domestic and international economic policies will be an invaluable asset to the Obama-Biden Administration, It’s an honor to have him on my team and I look forward to his advice and counsel.
The administration's transition office also released the following bio:
Jared Bernstein, Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice President
Jared Bernstein is an expert in the areas of federal, state and international economic policies, specifically the middle-class squeeze, income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, low-wage labor markets, poverty and international comparisons. Bernstein has been an economist at the Economic Policy Institute since 1992 and is a renowned author of several books and academic treatises on the economy and the middle class. From 1995-1996, he served as Deputy Chief Economist for the Department of Labor under Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Bernstein is on the Congressional Budget Office’s advisory committee and has been a contributor to the financial news station CNBC. He has also taught at Howard University, Columbia University and New York University. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts from the Manhattan School of Music; a Masters Degree in Social Work from the Hunter School of Social Work; a Masters Degree in Philosophy and Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Columbia University.
Bernstein posted quite a few diaries here, mostly in the summer of 2006, focusing for the most part on the debilitating effects of conservative economic ideology--or what he called "You're On Your Own" (YOYO) economics.