Treasury’s Scott Bessent hires Judy Shelton, Trump’s controversial former Fed nominee, as adviser

Judy Shelton, whose controversial economic ideas led the Senate to block her nomination to the Federal Reserve, has been named an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Treasury said Shelton would advise Bessent on monetary policy, “with a particular focus on assessing financial conditions in China.”

Shelton is not known as an expert on China. She authored “The Coming Soviet Crash” in 1989, followed by “Money Meltdown,” about the need for a unified international monetary regime, in 1994. Before joining Treasury, Shelton was a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a free market think tank, and, before that, at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Utah.

“Throughout her career, she has specialized in analyzing the internal monetary and financial conditions of nations and their impact on exchange rates,” the Treasury said in its statement, which will be released later Friday.

A bipartisan group of senators, including all Democrats and a handful of Republicans, rejected Shelton’s 2019 nomination by President Donald Trump for Fed governor because of his views on the independence of the Fed, his support for the gold standard and his questioning of whether the United States needed a central bank.

His appointment comes amid what is set to be a period of turmoil at the Treasury over senior staff. A recent Wall Street Journal article listed seven Senate-confirmed officials who left the department through the end of August. Only one position has been filled.

Bessent recently named David Zervos, former chief market strategist at Jefferies, as an advisor – the same job title as Shelton. Neither Shelton nor Zervos needs Senate approval.

Correction: Shelton wrote “Money Meltdown” in 1994. An earlier version misstated the year. David Zervos is the former chief market strategist at Jefferies. An earlier version misspelled the company name.