David Dayen deserves a lot of credit as a writer and as executive editor of
The American Prospect for his work on a Biden transition and what we should watch for - and guard against - during the early months of the Biden-Harris Administration. And was doing it months before the election. He has published a highly-regarded book on the financial crisis of the late 2000s,
Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud (2016), so he has extensive knowledge of the financial regulatory regime and its past failures.
This article is a good example, written by David himself at the
Prospect, deals with someone whose name is being seriously considered to head the National Economic Council (NEC), "a critical coordinating position at the White House,"
BlackRock Executive Brian Deese Could Get Major White House Position 11/24/2020. As he explains:
The fact that Deese could take over the NEC is notable. The position was created for Robert Rubin in 1993 as a way to bring economic policy coordination inside the White House and weaken the power of the Council of Economic Advisers, a more independent body of economists. NEC directors have been key bottlenecks in past administrations, filtering what advice and information gets to the president. In 2009, NEC director Larry Summers made sure that President Obama was presented only with smaller options for stimulus, ruling out fiscal aid at the level necessary to fill the demand gap. Deese worked with Summers at NEC during Obama’s first term.
With Biden more of a manager than a fixed ideologue, what options he gets to see matters significantly. That’s why Deese’s history inside politics should be just as troubling as his work at BlackRock. [my emphasis]
And the last thing we need right now are austerity advocates:
In addition to supporting fossil fuel extraction while a climate adviser to Obama, in 2008 as an advisor to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, Deese endorsed deficit reduction and “fiscal discipline.” He said at his confirmation hearing for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget in 2013 that his top priority would be working on a “comprehensive deficit reduction agreement,” which would include “entitlement reform.” In Washington-speak, that typically refers to Social Security and Medicare; in that hearing, he suggested means testing as a potential solution. After leaving the Obama administration, Deese gave paid speeches on topics that included “how the budget process can actually be used to reform entitlements and the tax code.”
Deese also was a key supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the multilateral trade agreement that was eventually rejected by House Democrats and tossed out by President Trump. With a potentially weak U.S. trade representative installed, trade policy would be largely run out of the White House, making the NEC director an even more critical figure. [my emphasis]
The article also links to a website called No Corporate Cabinet that lists what David calls "corporate-friendly potential candidates disfavored by progressive activists." At this writing, the list includes Deese and Jason Bordoff, Larry Fink, Mark Gitenstein, Tony James, Ernest Moniz, Gina Raimondo, Bruce Reed, Steve Ricchetti, and Heather Zichal. The site short description of Deese says, "After advising Obama on climate policy (defending the production of fossil fuels and necessity of oil and gas), Deese took a job as the chief greenwasher at the world's largest investor in fossil fuels: BlackRock."
The site's separate page on Deese notes:
Brian Deese is currently serving as an informal policy adviser to the Biden campaign. He previously served as a policy adviser to both Hillary Clinton and then Obama during their 2008 campaigns before joining the Obama-Biden Transition team. In the Obama Administration, Deese served on the National Economic Council (2009-2013), as Deputy Director (2011-2013) and Acting Director (2014) of the Office of Management and Budget, and as Senior Advisor to President Obama on Climate Policy (2015-2017). ...
As Hillary Clinton’s economic adviser, Deese emphasized “fiscal discipline” and pushed “Pay-As-You-Go” policy proposals, which would cut entitlement programs to decrease the deficit. In the Obama Administration, Deese worked closely with National Economic Council director and Wall Street insider Larry Summers and private equity executive Joshua Stein to send billions of taxpayer dollars to Wall Street after their reckless investments helped cause the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Summers, a highly controversial figure whose track record promoting policies that helped the financial industry has been widely criticized, had only praise for Deese’s “grasp of economics.”
As Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Deese said his top priority would be implementing “comprehensive deficit reduction” and advocated for cuts to social programs as a way to reduce the deficit. Deese even praised efforts to cut health care programs and floated the idea of means-testing Medicare. [my emphasis]
We really, really do not need this kind of character in a Biden-Harris Administration.
