In late September, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent brought Judy Shelton into his office as Counselor to the Secretary.
Most of the coverage treated it as a personnel note about a longtime gold advocate. I think the more useful question is a simple one: why would Treasury want her, and why now?
Start with the problem Bessent is trying to solve.
Treasury has to sell trillions of dollars in long-term debt to finance a national debt that has passed $40 trillion. Investors are demanding more to hold it. On Monday, the 30-year Treasury yield hit 5.7%, its highest level since 2002. Treasury expanded its bond buyback program in August to bring those yields down, and it has had little lasting effect.
The traditional fixes for this problem run through the Federal Reserve: the Fed buys bonds, or it caps long-term yields directly. Both options hand the problem to the Fed, and both tend to weaken the dollar.
Judy Shelton has spent more than a decade designing a different fix. One that runs through Treasury.
protip: handcuffs for them all - ANON