Sprinkel OKd as Reagan’s Top Economist

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Beryl W. Sprinkel as the new chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Sprinkel was approved by voice vote. He succeeds Martin Feldstein, who was often at odds with the Administration’s economic policies.

The chairmanship has been vacant since Feldstein resigned nine months ago. President Reagan, who at one time said he was considering abolishing the council, has not yet filled two other vacancies, leaving Sprinkel as the council’s sole member.

Sprinkel, 61, was undersecretary at the Treasury Department under then-Secretary Donald T. Regan, who is now White House chief of staff. An economist grounded in the monetarist school of the University of Chicago, Sprinkel was executive vice president of Harris Trust in Chicago before being named to the Treasury post in 1981.

CALIFORNIA

Pacific Motor Trucking, Burlingame, named Donald R. McKnight, 46, president. The position had been vacant for some time, a company spokesman said.

Alan D. DeMoss remains chairman and chief executive of the company, one of two trucking subsidiaries of Santa Fe Southern Pacific. He will be 60 in May.

Named to succeed McKnight as vice president-auto transport is D.E. Williams, 41.

P.D. (Dicky) Yip was named executive vice president of Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp. and head of the Hong Kong bank’s West Coast operations.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Richard P. De Luca has been named vice president-sales and marketing for Aratex Services, Encino.

Alfred C. Cutler has been named a vice president in the U.S. corporate banking group of Golden State Sanwa Bank, Los Angeles.

Keith Karpe was named vice president-public relations for Grubb & Ellis Co.’s Pacific Southwest region, based in Los Angeles.