Mohamed A. El-Erian , Columnist

For a Strong Start, Biden Needs a Smooth Transition

The president-elect faces a mountain of challenges and risks wasting precious time without cooperation from the current administration.

November 8, 2020 at 7:34 PM UTC

By Mohamed A. El-Erian

Mohamed A. El-Erian is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A former chief executive officer of Pimco, he is president of Queens’ College, Cambridge; chief economic adviser at Allianz SE; and chair of Gramercy Fund Management. He is author of “The Only Game in Town.”

Biden will be under pressure from Day One; how well the transfer of power goes could make a big difference. — Biden will be under pressure from Day One; how well the transfer of power goes could make a big difference.
Photographer: Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg

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President-elect Joe Biden is preparing to lead the U.S. at an increasingly troubling time. Americans face a host of challenges, from surging Covid-19 infections and slowing economic growth to worsening inequality and deep political and social divisions. The Biden administration will be under pressure from Day One and would have a better chance at getting off to a strong start if it were afforded a smooth transition. Biden and his team will need to be able to take quick actions, and it would greatly help if they were taken with as full an information set as possible.

Biden made it clear in his victory speech on Saturday evening that he is wasting no time in getting ready for the White House, especially when it comes to containing the pandemic. On Monday, he plans to appoint a 12-member task force that will work to create policies for dealing with Covid-19 that could start as soon as he is sworn in on Jan. 20. He is right to make the pandemic his first priority. Daily coronavirus cases have surged past 100,000, suggesting that the U.S. is following the type of path that has forced most of Europe to reimpose various forms of lockdowns in the face of increasingly strained healthcare systems. But that’s only one of the many challenges he must deal with quickly.