Biden taps Cornell prof who praised USSR for not having a 'gender pay gap there'
President Biden’s nominee for a key Treasury Department position argues that the free market does not always 'know best.'
She recently lauded the Soviet Union’s purported gender equality and called for controversial monetary policies in past publications.
President Biden’s nominee for a key Treasury Department post believes that the free market does not always “know best.”
Saule Omarova — the Beth and Marc Goldberg Professor of Law at Cornell University and a 1989 graduate of Moscow State University — was tapped to serve as Comptroller of the Currency, which “charters, regulates, and supervises all national banks.”
The Kazakh-American, however, has nodded toward the Soviet economic system’s purported gender equality.
“Until I came to the US, I couldn’t imagine that things like gender pay gap still existed in today’s world. Say what you will about old USSR, there was no gender pay gap there. Market doesn’t always ‘know best,’” she tweeted in 2019.
Until I came to the US, I couldn’t imagine that things like gender pay gap still existed in today’s world. Say what you will about old USSR, there was no gender pay gap there. Market doesn’t always “know best.” https://t.co/vvnx9DZICN
— Saule Omarova (@STOmarova) March 31, 2019
After experiencing backlash from users, she added: “I never claimed women and men were treated absolutely equally in every facet of Soviet life. But people’s salaries were set (by the state) in a gender-blind manner. And all women got very generous maternity benefits. Both things are still a pipe dream in our society!”
Fair enough. I never claimed women and men were treated absolutely equally in every facet of Soviet life. But people’s salaries were set (by the state) in a gender-blind manner. And all women got very generous maternity benefits. Both things are still a pipe dream in our society!
— Saule Omarova (@STOmarova) April 1, 2019
In a recent paper, Omarova also pushes for ending “banking as we know it.” Specifically, she advocates for creating a “People’s Ledger” by expanding the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet to include consumer bank deposits, as well as creating a “central bank digital currency.”
Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), the Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, referred to the paper in a September 24 statement explaining that he has “serious reservations” about her nomination.
[RELATED: Prof-turned-Biden official advocates for ‘Green Banks’ to fight climate change]
Another paper from Omarova asserts the need for a “National Investment Authority” that would manage “golden shares” in bailed-out financial institutions.
“The proposed ‘golden share’ would entitle the federal government, represented by the NIA, to receive a specified economic interest in the firm,” she wrote in 2020. “It would also grant the NIA, as the sole holder of the federal government’s golden share, special, exclusive, and nontransferable corporate-governance rights in the relevant firms.”
Campus Reform reached out to Omarova and Cornell University for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.
