During the Obama presidency, she advocated for a tight monetary policy, but reversed her position during Trump's presidency, when Trump advocated for a loose monetary policy (lower interest rates).[11][12] Her nomination was held up in the Senate, as senators of both parties were skeptical of her.[12] However, shortly after Joe Biden won the presidential election, Senate Republicans appeared to move ahead to confirm her.[12] More than 100 economists, including seven Nobel laureates, signed a letter opposing her confirmation, saying her views were "extreme and ill-considered."[13] She ultimately could not retain enough Republican support after senators Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) were absent due to exposure of COVID-19, and two present Republicans voted against and one absent one did not support her.[14]
Early life and education
Shelton was born in Los Angeles and raised in suburban San Fernando Valley. She is one of five children; her father was a businessman and her mother stayed at home to care for Shelton and her siblings.[15] Shelton attended Portland State University, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in business.[16] Shelton earned her MBA and PhD in business administration from the University of Utah.[16][17]
In 2012, Shelton joined TheGoldStandardNow.Org (a project of the Lehrman Institute) as a senior advisor.[18]
Before joining the Trump administration, she was the director of the Sound Money Project[19] at the Atlas Network. In a video interview with The Atlas Network, she described currency counterfeiter Bernard von NotHaus as "the Rosa Parks of monetary policy."[20] She has donated to conservative candidates and causes.[1]
Shelton worked for the Trump presidential transition team.[21] After Trump took office, she was appointed as the United States director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD); the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination by voice vote in March 2018.[21][1][22]The Wall Street Journal reported that she was absent for 12 of 28 board meetings during her tenure.[23] She resigned from her EBRD post in July 2019, while her appointment to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve was pending.[23]
Views on monetary policy
Shelton is a longtime staunch critic of the Federal Reserve.[4][1] In 2011, she called the Fed "almost a rogue agency" and questioned whether it could be trusted in having oversight of the dollar.[24] "She has called for a 0% inflation target, contradicting the bank's current 2% target.[25] She has written that a "fundamental question" of economics is "why do we need a central bank?"[26] Shelton has criticized the Fed's longstanding policy of independence from the White House, saying in 2019 interview that she saw "no reference to independence" in the Fed's authorizing legislation.[27] Shelton describes herself as "highly skeptical" of the Federal Reserve's "nebulous" dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability.[28]
During the Obama years, she criticized the Federal Reserve's low interest rates.[29][30][31] During the Trump presidency, she advocated for the Federal Reserve to adopt lower interest rates as a form of economic stimulus. (Trump frequently criticized the Federal Reserve for not lowering interest rates.)[3][29][32] She supported the Republican Party's 2017 tax legislation, and the Trump administration's deregulation agenda.[1] Before Trump became president, she was a longtime advocate for free trade, once advocating for "open borders" with Mexico; after Trump became president, she supported his administration's trade war.[1][33]
Shelton opposes federal deposit insurance. In her book Money Meltdown, she writes that "Eliminating federal deposit insurance would restore the essential character of banking as a vehicle for channeling financial capital into productive investment while striving to meet the risk and timing preference of depositors."[34]: 305
Shelton is a long-time proponent of pegging the value of the dollar to gold.[35] In 2019, she said that she hoped for a new Bretton Woods-style conference where countries would agree to return to the gold standard, saying, "If it takes place at Mar-a-Lago that would be great."[36] (Mar-a-Lago is a resort run by President Trump.)
In a 2012 piece in the Cato Institute's Cato Journal, Shelton called for the establishment of a "Universal Gold Reserve Bank" with "potential to become a sort of global monetary authority";[37] she expressed similar views in a 1999 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.[38] In 2000, she advocated for open borders with Mexico,[33] and said that "even better would be a global common market with a single worldwide currency."[39] She has favored virtual currencies that compete against the U.S. dollar.[39]
During her February 2020 confirmation hearings, both Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee expressed concerns about her writings and statements.[41][42][43] On July 21, 2020, a 13–12 vote along party lines advanced Shelton's nomination to the full Senate.[44] On September 15, 2020, Senator John Thune, Republican Whip, announced that Shelton would not be brought up for a vote until she had the 51 votes required to confirm her to the Federal Reserve.[45]
In August, 130 economists, including seven Nobel laureates, recommended the Senate reject her nomination, writing that Shelton was unfit for the post due to her "extreme and ill-considered" views, and writing that rejection of her nomination was needed for Fed to maintain its "nonpartisan approach."[46] Seventy-eight former Federal Reserve economists, attorneys and presidents of Federal Reserve Banks also signed the letter.[47][48]
On November 17, 2020, the motion to invoke cloture on the Shelton nomination failed on a 47–50 vote.[8] All Democratic senators (including Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who had to return to Washington for the vote[51]), along with the Republican senators Romney and Collins, voted against her nomination; Lamar Alexander said that he opposed the nomination, but was not present for the vote.[52] Senators Rick Scott and Chuck Grassley—crucial Republican votes needed to confirm Shelton's nomination—were absent due to quarantine measures enforced after being exposed to COVID-19.[14]
Shelton is married to Gilbert Shelton.[1] The Sheltons had eleven French Charolais cattle, six dogs and peacocks as of 2009.[54] Her husband is a former entrepreneurial banker in Utah, Colorado, and Hawaii who sold his businesses in the early-1980s. They have lived at Moss Neck Manor, a historic antebellum plantation house in Rappahannock Academy, Virginia, since 2005. The property borders Fort Walker.[54][55]