Bessent Appoints Judy Shelton as Treasury Adviser

Judy Shelton, whose nomination to the Federal Reserve was rejected by the Senate, has joined the US Treasury Department as a counselor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Announced on October 9, 2026, the appointment assigns Shelton an advisory role focused on currency policy, particularly the assessment of financial conditions in China.

According to the Treasury Department, Shelton will advise Bessent on international monetary issues. The department said her work will place particular emphasis on evaluating China's financial conditions, although her previous career has not primarily focused on China.

The Treasury Department described Shelton's professional expertise in its announcement, stating, "Throughout her career, she has specialized in analyzing the internal monetary and financial conditions of nations and their impact on exchange rates."

Shelton previously worked as a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a free-market think tank, and at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She holds a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Utah and has written books examining international monetary systems and economic developments.

Her publications include "Money Meltdown," released in 1988, which examined the need for a unified international monetary regime. The following year, she published "The Coming Soviet Crash," focusing on the Soviet Union's economic outlook.

Shelton's appointment follows the Senate's rejection of her nomination to the Federal Reserve Board in 2019. President Donald Trump had selected her for the position, but a bipartisan group of senators, including all Democrats and several Republicans, opposed her confirmation.

According to the source report, senators raised concerns about Shelton's views on the Federal Reserve's independence, her support for the gold standard and her questioning of whether the United States needed a central bank. Those positions became central to the opposition that prevented her from joining the Federal Reserve.

The appointment comes amid personnel changes at the Treasury Department. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that seven Senate-confirmed officials had left the department by the end of August, with only one of those positions filled at the time of its report.

Bessent has also appointed David Zervos, a former chief market strategist at Jefferies, as a counselor. Zervos holds the same advisory title as Shelton, and neither appointment requires Senate confirmation.