A longtime Federal Reserve and White House economist won Senate approval Thursday to head the Treasury Department's Office of Economic Policy.
Karen Dynan was approved on a voice vote in the Senate to become the assistant secretary for economic policy, after serving recently as a counselor to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.
Dynan spent 17 years at the Federal Reserve, working on a wide range of economic policy issues.
From 2009 to 2013, Dynan was co-director of the Economic Studies program at the center-left think tank The Brookings Institution. When Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke retired late last year, he went to Brookings to work on a memoir. The program is also home to longtime former Fed Vice Chair Donald Kohn.
In her new job, Dynan will be responsible for analyzing and reporting on emerging trends in the U.S. and global economies, helping fine-tune policy accordingly.
By Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Washington Bureau