Lisa Cook, expert on racism’s economic scars, Biden Fed pick

Lisa Cook, expert on racism’s economic scars, Biden Fed pick

WASHINGTON: A researcher focused on how discrimination has harmed the American economy and the damage downturns do to the poor, Lisa Cook would bring a new perspective to the US central bank. If confirmed by the Senate, Cook would be the first Black woman to serve on the powerful Federal Reserve Board of Governors, a seven-member body which guides the country’s monetary policy and throughout its 108-year history has largely been a domain of white men.

The daughter of a Baptist chaplain and a professor of nursing, Cook bears physical scars from racism after she was attacked as a young child while involved in an effort to integrate racially segregated schools in the state of Georgia. She has dedicated much of her research as an adult to previously unmeasured economic scars of discrimination on the productive capacity of the world’s largest economy.

Cook is one of President Joe Biden’s picks to fill open seats on the Fed board, along with Philip Jefferson of Davidson College, who would be the fourth Black man to serve on the body.For the powerful post of Fed vice chair for supervision, which oversees the nation’s banks, Biden tapped former Fed governor Sarah Bloom Raskin, who is white.