Biden Taps Ridgefield Economist For Adviser

RIDGEFIELD, CT — Economist and Ridgefield native son Jared Bernstein has been named to serve on the Council of Economic Advisers by president-elect Joe Biden, the Jerusalem Post is reporting.

Bernstein was Biden's chief economist and economic adviser, executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, and a member of President Obama's economic team from 2009 to 2011, while Biden was vice president.

Before to joining the Obama administration, Bernstein was a senior economist and the director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute, and between 1995 and 1996, he held the post of deputy chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor.

Bernstein grew up in Ridgefield, and was a member of Ridgefield High School's 1973 graduating class.

Bernstein has been referred to as a "progressive" economist for his attention to income inequality and opposition to international free trade agreements. He holds a PhD in Social Welfare from Columbia University.