Scott Bessent hires controversial former Fed nominee Judy Shelton as Treasury adviser

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has appointed Judy Shelton, the unorthodox economist whose nomination to the Federal Reserve board was blocked by the Senate, as a senior adviser on currency policy.

Shelton will take on the role of counselor, a position that does not require Senate confirmation. The Treasury Department said in an announcement that she will advise Bessent on exchange rate issues, with a particular focus on evaluating the financial conditions in China.

Though the Treasury highlighted her career specialising in "analysing the internal monetary and financial conditions of nations and their impact on exchange rates", Shelton is not widely known as a specialist on China. Her early academic work focused elsewhere; she wrote Money Meltdown, a book advocating for a unified international monetary regime, in 1988, followed by The Coming Soviet Crash the next year.

Unconventional views and Senate block

It is her unconventional monetary views that made her a lightning rod in Washington. In 2019, President Donald Trump nominated her to serve as a governor on the Federal Reserve board. That nomination sparked fierce opposition from all Senate Democrats and a handful of Republicans, who eventually blocked her path.

Critics at the time pointed to her past support for returning the US to the gold standard and her writings that questioned whether a modern economy actually needs a central bank. Her critics also raised alarms about her views on the independence of the Fed, arguing she might politicise the central bank's interest rate decisions.

Before joining the Treasury, Shelton was a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a free-market think tank, and previously held a fellowship at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. She holds a doctorate in business administration from the University of Utah.

Bypassing confirmation processes

Her arrival comes at a time when Bessent is leaning on advisers who do not require congressional approval to fill out his team. He recently appointed David Zervos, the former chief market strategist at the investment bank Jefferies, to a matching counselor role.

These appointments arrive amid broader staffing challenges at the Treasury. The department has struggled with vacancies among its top tier; a report by the Wall Street Journal noted that seven Senate-confirmed officials had left the department by the end of August, with only one of those positions being successfully filled. By bringing in Shelton and Zervos as counselors, Bessent is installing high-profile advisers without waiting on a slow and politically charged confirmation process.