Cecilia Rouse, the first Black American to head the Council of Economic Advisers, is leaving the White House. This news comes after she misjudged inflation for months.

Rouse was confirmed two years ago to join President Joe Biden’s administration. But this wasn’t her first White House appointment. Rouse served in the National Economic Council under President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 1999. Then, she served as a member of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2009 to 2011

After her time with Obama, she was dean of Princeton University’s public affairs school.

Back in December 2021, she met with Greg Ip, The Wall Street Journal‘s chief economics commentator, at the WSJ CEO Council Summit to discuss the U.S. economy.

At the time, she said, “On the inflation side, we anticipated that the market would be more open. I would say we were largely on the right track through June, July. Maybe inflation was a little higher than we expected.”

She seemed to miss the call on inflation. She noted, “As the inflation rate started to tick up, it was very targeted to pandemic-related sectors—the auto sector, airlines. But it has become more broad-based. And that is largely, at least from our diagnosis, due to the elevated demand.”

And added, “We just didn’t fully appreciate that the supply chain wouldn’t be able to process the elevated demand for durable goods. We have demand for durable goods above pre-pandemic levels, but we just can’t get them through our ports.”

Rouse and her team seemed to stay on the same path with their economic outlook. Rouse and other economists did not anticipate inflation increasing to 40-year highs, which Republicans blame on the president’s pandemic relief program, Bloomberg reported.

“At the time, what my interpretation was is that this inflation was due to the pandemic, and the pandemic being kind of this external force to the economy, meant that we would get through it,” Rouse, 59. said in retrospect. “It didn’t mean to suggest it was going to be weeks or even a couple of months, but that it was fundamentally tied to supply chain disruptions and changes in consumer demand.”

According to Rouse, the economic legacy of the coronavirus pandemic continues to negatively impact the economy.

“We still have covid with us,” Dr. Rouse told The New York Times. “It is still impacting decisions that we’re making, whether it’s on our personal side, economic decisions.”

Rouse now plans to return to teaching at Princeton University.

Council of Economic Advisers Chair Cecilia Rouse speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington, March 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

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