Progressives rejoiced when former Fed chair Janet Yellen was named to be President-elect Biden’s Treasury secretary. She’s far better on the whole range of policy issues under Treasury’s purview than any of the other contenders.

But not so fast. Will Yellen be master in her own house, and who will control the all-important subcabinet positions like the undersecretary for international affairs, the key regulatory posts, and the IRS commissioner?

The early signs are not auspicious. Almost lost in the welter of top economic jobs leaked to the Times, Post, and Wall Street Journal by the transition staff on Sunday (the Prospect reported most of these earlier in the week) was an unfamiliar name, Adewale Adeyemo, known as Wally. He is to be Yellen’s deputy Treasury secretary.

Who is Wally Adeyemo? If he is typical of what’s coming, we can expect that what the Biden team gives progressives with one hand, they may take away with the other.

Adeyemo, 39, came to the U.S. as a child from Nigeria with his parents. He excelled in school, graduating from the University of California and then Yale Law School. While at Yale, he worked in the Obama campaign. He joined the administration while still in his late twenties, working for then–Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

Among the red flags for progressives is the fact that after leaving government, Adeyemo followed a well-worn path of Obama alums seeking to cash in, and went to Wall Street. And not just anywhere on Wall Street—he went to BlackRock, the world’s largest financial firm with $7 trillion under management, where he served as a political adviser and for a time as chief of staff to CEO Larry Fink.

So Adeyemo begins with a conflict of interest, since Fink’s top priority is to prevent BlackRock from being designated as a systemically important financial institution (SIFI), which would subject it to a higher level of regulatory scrutiny. The Treasury is the key player on this decision, and scores of others that affect BlackRock’s business model. For more on Adeyemo, click here.