In Transition

Here’s a sign that Vice President-elect Joe Biden intends to be involved in the Obama administration’s decisions on economic policy as well as foreign policy: He has just hired a high-profile progressive to be his chief economist and economic policy adviser.

Jared Bernstein, currently the director of the Living Standards program at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, is known for his work on income inequality and low-wage labor markets. He is the co-author of The State of Working America, an annual guide that focuses on the challenges faced by middle-class Americans and the working poor.

The appointment guarantees that Bernstein’s work on economic inequality and poverty will get a hearing at the highest levels of this administration. In a statement, Biden called Bernstein “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.”

The fact that Biden would hire someone with Bernstein’s background suggests that the incoming vice president may be trying to bolster his own knowledge of economic policy, since his committee chairmanships in the Senate — Foreign Relations now, and Judiciary in the 1980s and 1990s — wouldn’t necessarily prepare him to deal with the economic crisis that is Washington’s top priority right now.

It also suggests that Biden, who doesn’t want to be tied down to a specific portfolio in the Obama administration, is serious about carrying out his expressed desire to give Obama advice on a wide range of subjects.

— David Nather