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Judy Shelton, whose economic views helped sink her nomination to the Federal Reserve, has been appointed a counselor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The new assignment places the controversial former nominee inside Treasury without requiring another Senate vote.

Treasury said Shelton will advise Bessent on currency policy, “with a particular focus on evaluating financial conditions in China.” The department announced the appointment in a statement scheduled for release later Friday.

The China focused assignment is notable because Shelton is not known as a China expert. Her published work and institutional roles have instead centered on monetary systems, national financial conditions, exchange rates, and the international monetary order.

In 1988, Shelton authored “Money Meltdown,” a book about the need for a unified international monetary regime. She followed that work the next year with “The Coming Soviet Crash.”

Before joining Treasury, Shelton served as a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, which the source describes as a free market think tank. Before that position, she worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Shelton holds a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Utah. Treasury said she has specialized throughout her career in studying nations’ internal monetary and financial conditions and their effects on exchange rates.

Her return to a federal policy role follows the Senate’s rejection of her nomination to become a Federal Reserve governor. President Donald Trump nominated Shelton for that position in 2019, but a bipartisan group of senators ultimately blocked the nomination.

All Democrats joined a handful of Republicans in opposing Shelton’s confirmation. The resistance focused on her views regarding Federal Reserve independence, her support for the gold standard, and her questioning of whether the United States needed a central bank.

Those positions made Shelton a deeply controversial choice for the Federal Reserve board. Her appointment as a Treasury counselor now gives her an advisory position involving currency policy, though it does not place her on the central bank’s governing board.

The counselor position does not require Senate approval. That distinction allows Shelton to assume the Treasury role despite the bipartisan opposition that prevented her from winning confirmation as a Federal Reserve governor.

Shelton’s arrival also comes during what appears to be a period of personnel turmoil at Treasury. A recent Wall Street Journal story cataloged seven officials confirmed by the Senate who had left the department through the end of August.

According to that account, only one of those seven positions had been filled. Shelton’s appointment adds an adviser to Bessent’s team, but the counselor position is separate from the Senate confirmed posts described in the report.

Bessent recently selected David Zervos, the former chief market strategist at Jeffries, to serve as a counselor as well. Zervos holds the same job title as Shelton, and his appointment likewise does not require Senate approval.

The two counselor appointments give Bessent additional advisers while vacancies remain among positions subject to Senate confirmation. Shelton’s responsibilities will specifically center on currency policy and the evaluation of financial conditions in China.

The assignment brings Shelton back into the federal economic policy arena after senators rejected her bid for the Federal Reserve. It also puts her longstanding work on monetary conditions and exchange rates directly before the Treasury secretary.

Her history of support for the gold standard and skepticism about the need for a central bank remain central to the controversy surrounding her. Treasury, however, is emphasizing her experience analyzing national monetary conditions and their consequences for exchange rates.

DISCLAIMER: GoldInvestors.news is not a registered investment, legal or tax advisor or broker/dealer. All investment/financial opinions expressed by GoldInvestors.news are from the personal research and experience of the owner of the site and are intended as educational material. Although best efforts are made to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date, occasionally unintended errors and misprints may occur.