The US Treasury Department has appointed Judy Shelton, a former Federal Reserve nominee, as a counselor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The department announced the appointment on October 9, 2026, assigning Shelton to advise on currency policy, particularly the assessment of financial conditions in China.
Her new responsibilities center on international monetary and financial conditions, though her previous work has not established her as a China specialist.
The Treasury said her background in analyzing national financial systems and their effects on exchange rates qualifies her for the advisory role.
"Throughout her career, she has specialized in analyzing the internal monetary and financial conditions of nations and their impact on exchange rates," the department said in its announcement.
Background and Previous Nomination
Shelton previously served as a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a free-market think tank, and held a position at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
She earned a Ph. D.
in business administration from the University of Utah.
Her published works include "Money Meltdown," released in 1988, which examined the need for a unified international monetary regime.
She followed it with "The Coming Soviet Crash" in 1989.
Shelton's appointment follows the Senate's rejection of President Donald Trump's 2019 nomination of her to serve as a Federal Reserve governor.
A bipartisan group of senators, including all Democrats and several Republicans, opposed her nomination over concerns about her views on the central bank's independence, her support for the gold standard and her questioning of whether the United States needed a central bank.
The appointment also comes amid personnel turnover at the Treasury Department.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that seven Senate-confirmed officials had left the department through the end of August, while only one of those positions had been filled.
Bessent has also appointed David Zervos, formerly chief market strategist at Jefferies, as a counselor.
Zervos holds the same advisory title as Shelton, and neither appointment requires Senate confirmation.
