Government After graduating from Yale in 1992, Barr worked as a law clerk for Judge
Pierre N. Leval in the
U.S. District Court for the
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He moved to the U.S. Supreme Court to clerk for Associate Justice
David Souter in 1993. In 1994, he joined the
Policy Planning Staff of the
United States Department of State as a special advisor and counselor. From 1995 to 1997, he was a special assistant to Secretary
Robert Rubin, and then deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for community development policy from 1997 to 2001. At the Treasury Department, he helped to design the
Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and established the
Office of Community Development. Barr was concurrently a special advisor to President
Bill Clinton from 1999 to 2001. In the Clinton administration, he also worked to protect the
Community Reinvestment Act and launch the New Markets Tax Credit. He formed an interagency working group to advance fair lending across the banking agencies and the
Department of Justice. From 2009 to 2010, while on leave from the
University of Michigan Law School, Barr returned to the
Department of the Treasury as
assistant secretary of the treasury for financial institutions. In this position, he was a key architect of the
Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. He played a central role in developing the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and policies to expand access to capital for small businesses. He also helped to develop and enact the
Credit CARD Act of 2009. In 2010, he was awarded the Alexander Hamilton Award for Distinguished Leadership, the Treasury's highest honor. He was considered for a position on the
Federal Reserve Board of Governors in 2014 and as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2010. He was a proponent of the
Volcker Rule, rules limiting the pre-emption of state
consumer protection laws, and the closure of the
industrial loan company loophole. Because the
Dodd-Frank Act faced significant opposition from regulators, moderates and the financial sector, Barr was described as "Wall Street's nemesis" by
Bloomberg Businessweek. In November 2020, Barr was named a volunteer member of the
Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the United States Department of the Treasury. In January 2021,
The Wall Street Journal reported that Biden was expected to pick Barr as
Comptroller of the Currency.
Academia and research Returning to the University of Michigan, Barr established and directed the Center on Finance, Law, and Policy, a university-wide interdisciplinary research center on financial policy and regulation, financial products and services, and management of financial institutions. In 2015, Barr helped to create the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund, which provides loan capital to minority entrepreneurs in Detroit. He also co-founded the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (DNEP) at the University of Michigan in 2016. The DNEP is an interdisciplinary clinic that connects students and faculty from the law school, the
Stephen M. Ross School of Business, the
Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and the
University of Michigan College of Engineering to help entrepreneurs develop their small businesses. On August 1, 2017, Barr began a five-year appointment as the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Barr has completed research in the areas of
financial regulation and
financial inclusion. He has published over 100 books and articles on the topic. His books also suggest public policy recommendations for making the financial system more stable and fairer for low-income people. His first book,
Building Inclusive Financial Systems, published in 2007, is about the obstacles that households, the rural poor and micro-enterprises face when trying to meet their financial needs. In 2009, Barr published
Insufficient Funds, which was co-edited by the former Ford School dean,
Rebecca Blank. The book is about the results of a 1,000-person, in-depth field research study conducted in Detroit. It found that low-income families pay more for financial services and supplement mainstream banking services with alternative lenders, such as payday lenders and pawn shops. Barr's book,
No Slack: The Financial Lives of Low-Income Americans, was published in 2012 and is also about the Detroit research study. It contains anecdotes from the interviewees and recommendations for improving the financial health of low- and moderate-income people. In 2016, Barr co-authored a law school casebook with Margaret E. Tahyar and Howell Jackson called
Financial Regulation: Law & Policy. A second edition was published in 2018, and a third in 2021.
Federal Reserve and Chair
Jerome Powell in 2022 On April 15, 2022, Barr was announced by President
Joe Biden as his nominee for the
Federal Reserve, to take the position of
Vice Chair for Supervision of the
Federal Reserve, following the failed nomination of
Sarah Bloom Raskin. Barr was confirmed 66–28 as both Federal Reserve governor and vice chair for supervision on July 13, 2022, and sworn in on July 19, 2022. On January 6, 2025, the Federal Reserve Board announced that Barr would be resigning from his position as Vice Chair for Supervision effective on February 28, 2025 and that he would continue to serve as a governor. Barr remains on leave from the University of Michigan. == Political positions ==