U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bosworth has hired veteran Wall Street economist David Zews ( David Zervos ) to serve as a consultant to the Treasury Department. Zews has long served as the chief market strategist at Jefferies ( Jefferies ) and was formerly a commentator for CNBC .
Bessent announced this appointment on Monday in a statement first obtained by CNBC. Zevos will serve in a broad advisory capacity and is expected to begin working immediately.
He supports Bessent's recent decision to increase the repurchase of certain long-term U.S. Treasury bonds and calls on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
Following a series of high-profile personnel departures at the Treasury Department, he will bring additional "intellectual firepower" to the department. According to a report from Washington Sun, as of mid-August, 7 out of the 16 officials appointed by the Senate had already resigned. Since taking on the role of Treasury Secretary in January 2025, Besant has now welcomed his third Chief of Staff.
Similar to Zervos, another Wall Street economist, Joseph Lavogna ( Joseph Lavorgna ), also previously worked as a consultant for Besant, but resigned in March. This position does not require Senate confirmation.
Bessent holds an especially broad range of responsibilities as the Secretary of the Treasury. He has essentially been President Trump's chief negotiator on China-related issues and has been deeply involved in policy discussions regarding artificial intelligence. However, Trump stated last Friday that Bessent would no longer serve concurrently as the government's chief advisor on artificial intelligence.
Zervos was once considered by Trump to serve as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, but in January, the President ultimately chose Kevin Warsh ( Kevin Warsh ) for this position.
Zervos has been working at the New York investment bank Jefferies since 2010.
Zervos holds a Doctor of Economics degree and has served at the Federal Reserve twice. The first time was in the early stages of his career, in the early 1990s, where he mainly focused on research in technical economics and interest rates. After that, he left the public sector and returned to the Federal Reserve as a visiting advisor after the financial crisis in 2009. At that time, Bernanke was a governor of the Federal Reserve, but it is not clear whether the two worked together directly at that time.
Last year, Zervos stated that he believed interest rates should be "much lower." Since Walsh took on the position, Zervos has said that he thinks Walsh could create room for even lower interest rates by reducing the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, and balance sheet reduction is indeed one of Walsh's primary tasks.
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since 2023 earlier this month. This move sparked dissatisfaction among some economists within the Trump administration, but Berenshtein took a more cautious stance. On Sunday, he stated in a Fox News program that the Federal Reserve "should adopt an open-minded approach" to how to manage the economy.
As interest rates continue to rise, Besant has entered the U.S. Treasury market. Driven by a strong economy, capital competition brought about by artificial intelligence development, and ongoing inflation concerns stemming from the Iran war, the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds rose to 5.2% on Friday, reaching this level for the first time since 2007.
Last month, when CNBC made its appearance, Zervos supported Bessent's decision to increase the repurchase of certain long-term government bonds, believing that this move could alleviate the pressure on the yields of some U.S. Treasury bonds. Some individuals on Wall Street criticized these repurchases, but Zervos stated that he supports this approach.
“I can’t see how you could confront them on this matter, since both the firepower and the cards are in the hands of the Ministry of Finance,” Zevos said.
