Kamala Harris’ top economic advisor is another BlackRock exec
BlackRock is cementing its position as the Biden administration’s go-to Wall Street firm.
Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris on Friday said she’s selected BlackRock’s Global Chief Investment Strategist Mike Pyle as her chief economic advisor, making him the third high-profile member of Larry Fink’s $7.8 trillion financial empire to take a top job with the Biden White House.
In November, President-elect Joe Biden tapped BlackRock alums Brian Deese and Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo as head of the National Economic Council and deputy Treasury secretary, respectively.
Deese and Pyle, who will not require Senate confirmation, will be the first duo of the modern era to go from the same Wall Street firm to jobs as top economic advisors to the president and vice president of the United States.
Not even Goldman Sachs — famously mocked as “Government Sachs” for its roster of C-Suite executives who’ve moved into powerful DC roles — has managed that feat.
Pyle is the most senior of the three BlackRock execs to head to DC. Like Deese and Adeyemo, he was also a key aide in the Obama White House, where he was instrumental in that administration’s policies on health care reform and trade with China.
Deepening Pyle’s ties to the administration is the fact that he was once a law clerk for Biden’s Attorney General nominee, Merrick Garland.
His rise at BlackRock has been swift and he is currently a top advisor to Fink on how the world’s largest asset manager should manages its assets. He’s also taken on a public facing role at BlackRock and recently appeared on CNBC to present the firm’s bullish economic outlook.
“We see 2021 as a really powerful year for the restart, in terms of economic activity,” he told the network. “But also importantly a year where we’re going to see central banks hold interest rates within a pretty tight range.”
For Fink, having so many former staffers in prominent DC roles may prove a consolation prize for not being chosen as Biden’s Treasury Secretary — a job that the 68-year-old billionaire and vocal Biden supporter was rumored to have been eyeing during the election.
“Larry is playing this perfectly,” one investment banker mused to The Post. “The next four years are going to be all about the kind of stuff that BlackRock does and he will have his people at the inflection point of how Washington will be reacting to that.”
- Source : Thornton McEnery
