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Biden Adviser Cecilia Rouse Vows ‘Aggressive’ Moves to Reduce Inequality

Biden Adviser Rouse Vows ‘Aggressive’ Moves to Reduce Inequality

Inequalities in income, wealth and other measures are holding back the U.S. economy, said Council of Economic Advisers Chair Cecilia Rouse.

“Structural inequality is not helping, it means we’re leaving productivity on the table,” Rouse said Thursday in a virtual Bloomberg Equality Summit interview. “We want to be looking at an aggressive set of policies to address those kinds of structural inequalities.”

Rouse, the first Black person to chair the economic panel, said the pandemic has weighed disproportionately on low income people, Americans of color and women, and that the Biden administration wants to the economy to be even stronger than it was before Covid-19.

Biden Adviser Cecilia Rouse Vows ‘Aggressive’ Moves to Reduce Inequality

The administration also wants to improve how economic data is collected among smaller populations, including Native Americans, Rouse said, so that policy makers can better understand how these groups are faring compared to others.

Rouse also acknowledged that disparities in income along racial lines add up over time to create larger gaps in wealth. She said the right way to address that today is “an open question” that merits study.

President Joe Biden has previously said he supports studying reparations for Black Americans.

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