Lisa Cook, first black woman to become Fed governor

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Lisa Cook, an expert on racial inequality, is the first black woman on her way to becoming governor of the Fed, the central bank of the United States. President Joe Biden nominated her, pending confirmation by the Senate.

Lisa Cook has spent her life demonstrating how racism, hatred and violence can reduce living standards and growth in the United States. She recently spoke at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth in Washington.

« You don’t integrate the whole population, you don’t use all the resources of the economy. You are not managing the economy well. We estimate that the gross domestic product per capita would be 0.6 to 4.5 % higher if there were more women and more African Americans included in the innovation process. That’s a lot of wasted money. »

A brilliant and committed journey

Lisa Cook’s beliefs were shaped by her childhood in Milledgeville, Georgia. ” It was the desegregationist south “, she says, ” and my parents fought against nonviolence alongside a family friend, Pastor Martin Luther King ».

Daughter of a Baptist chaplain and a teacher in a nursing school, she is one of the first black children to enter a public school, formerly reserved for white students. The climate is violent and she keeps under her right eye the scar of the racist attacks she has suffered.

Lisa Cook overcomes all hardships and follows long brilliant studies in economics and philosophy in prestigious universities. First in Atlanta, then in Oxford, England, at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, and finally in Berkeley, California. Sylvie Matelli, Deputy Director at IRIS, the Institute for International and Strategic Relations.

« It’s a high potential, if you allow me the expression, because a doctor in economics, very committed to different issues, who speaks 5 languages ​​including Russian. It’s not anyone. »

A specialist in the effects of racism on the economy

Lisa Cook was a teacher at the Harvard International Development Center before becoming a professor of economics and international relations at the University of Michigan. A journey that impresses President Joe Biden, as Sylvie Matelli explains.

« She is an economist but she is not at all a specialist in financial economics or monetary policy. She is a specialist in the perverse effects of racism on the economy, so there is really a very strong commitment, not only is he (Biden) bringing in a woman, but a black woman, I think we are really on this issue of inequality. »

Lisa Cook should therefore bring a new dimension that does not exist at the Fed. Georges Ugeux, president of Galileo Global Advisors.

« He is really a person who is academic. So what she’s going to bring is a different angle that didn’t exist at the Fed. For example, it will ensure that when the Federal Reserve makes investments or supports a certain number of financial institutions, everything does not go in one direction and that equal opportunities are taken into consideration in the Fed employment policy. »

Leverage her experience as a development adviser for Obama

The unemployment rate in the United States is 3.6%, almost its pre-pandemic level. But it is 7% for the black population.

Apart from the fight against racial and gender inequalities, Lisa Cook hopes to use her experience as an international development adviser in the administration of Barack Obama and her support in Joe Biden’s transition team, explains Sylvie Matelli.

« She has worked a lot on economic development, so that’s not bad, because the toughening of American policy to fight inflation can have consequences on the countries of the South which are today very indebted, it is them most vulnerable in the face of this debt and the fact that it is a specialist in this economic development, this is probably not insignificant. She had worked a lot on economic recovery in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. So here is someone rather empathetic, open to the world. »

The appointment of Lisa Cook, however, cringe in the ranks of the Republicans. They consider her too unqualified in macroeconomics to join the Fed. But Lisa Cook is not close to a fight.

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