She worked at the
Hoover Institution from 1985 to 1995. Before joining the Trump administration, she was the director of the Sound Money Project at the
Atlas Network. In a video interview with The Atlas Network, she described currency counterfeiter
Bernard von NotHaus as "the
Rosa Parks of monetary policy." She has donated to conservative candidates and causes. After Trump took office, she was appointed as the United States director of the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD); the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination by
voice vote in March 2018.
The Wall Street Journal reported that she was absent for 12 of 28 board meetings during her tenure. She resigned from her EBRD post in July 2019, while her appointment to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve was pending. "She has called for a 0% inflation target, contradicting the bank's current 2% target. She has written that a "fundamental question" of economics is "why do we need a central bank?" Shelton has criticized the Fed's longstanding policy of independence from the White House, saying in 2019 interview that she saw "no reference to independence" in the Fed's authorizing legislation. Shelton describes herself as "highly skeptical" of the Federal Reserve's "nebulous" dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability. During the Obama years, she criticized the Federal Reserve's low interest rates. During the Trump presidency, she advocated for the Federal Reserve to adopt lower interest rates as a form of economic stimulus. (Trump frequently criticized the Federal Reserve for not lowering interest rates.) She supported the
Republican Party's 2017 tax legislation, and the Trump administration's deregulation agenda. Shelton opposes
federal deposit insurance. In her book
Money Meltdown, she writes that "Eliminating federal deposit insurance would restore the essential character of banking as a vehicle for channeling financial capital into productive investment while striving to meet the risk and timing preference of depositors." Shelton is a long-time proponent of pegging the value of the dollar to gold. In 2019, she said that she hoped for a new
Bretton Woods-style conference where countries would agree to return to the gold standard, saying, "If it takes place at
Mar-a-Lago that would be great." (Mar-a-Lago is a resort run by President Trump.) In a 2012 piece in the
Cato Institute's
Cato Journal, Shelton called for the establishment of a "Universal Gold Reserve Bank" with "potential to become a sort of global monetary authority"; she expressed similar views in a 1999 op-ed in the
Wall Street Journal. In 2000, she advocated for open borders with Mexico, She has favored
virtual currencies that compete against the
U.S. dollar. During the months in which Shelton was being considered for the post by Trump, she was a guest at the
Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C. On July 21, 2020, a 13–12 vote along party lines advanced Shelton's nomination to the full Senate. On September 15, 2020, Senator
John Thune, Republican
Whip, announced that Shelton would not be brought up for a vote until she had the 51 votes required to confirm her to the Federal Reserve. In August, 130 economists, including seven
Nobel laureates, recommended the Senate reject her nomination, writing that Shelton was unfit for the post due to her "extreme and ill-considered" views, and writing that rejection of her nomination was needed for Fed to maintain its "nonpartisan approach." Seventy-eight former Federal Reserve economists, attorneys and presidents of
Federal Reserve Banks also signed the letter. Among key Republican senators,
Lisa Murkowski supported Shelton's nomination, but
Susan Collins,
Mitt Romney, and
Lamar Alexander came out in opposition to the nomination, leaving Shelton's ability to be confirmed in doubt. On November 17, 2020, the motion to invoke
cloture on the Shelton nomination failed on a 47–50 vote. All Democratic senators (including Vice President-elect
Kamala Harris, who had to return to Washington for the vote), along with the Republican senators Romney and Collins, voted against her nomination;
Lamar Alexander said that he opposed the nomination, but was not present for the vote. Senators
Rick Scott and
Chuck Grassley—crucial Republican votes needed to confirm Shelton's nomination—were absent due to quarantine measures enforced after being exposed to COVID-19. ==Personal life==