White House Weighs Fed's Raskin for Treasury Post; McKinsey Veteran Auguste to Join NEC as Obama Administration Continues Rebuilding Economic Team
The White House is considering tapping Federal Reserve governor Sarah Bloom Raskin to be deputy Treasury secretary as the Obama administration continues to rebuild its economic team and renew its focus on shoring up the middle class, according to people familiar with administration deliberations.</br></br>Ms. Raskin, 52 years old, would succeed Neal Wolin in the deputy post. The Treasury said this week that Mr. Wolin, 51, would step down next month after more than four years in the post.</br></br>Separately, Byron Auguste, an economist and 20-year veteran of McKinsey & Co., this week will become deputy director of the National Economic Council, according to administration officials. He has worked with high-tech companies and, for six years, headed the McKinsey unit that works with private, public and nonprofit institutions seeking to improve living standards around the world.</br></br>An opinion column co-written by Mr. Auguste last year called on the government to better prepare workers by improving the educational system, creating a national jobs database and "streamlining" regulations, among other steps. President Barack Obama is expected to sound similar themes in a speech at Knox College on Wednesday.</br></br>Ms. Raskin is a Harvard-trained lawyer who was appointed to the Fed by Mr. Obama in 2010. She has kept a low profile on the Fed's monetary-policy decisions, but has been deeply involved in its behind-the-scenes work in writing rules to implement the Dodd-Frank financial-regulation law passed after the financial crisis.