The reality of Obama’s economic team, part 1
by Ari Rutenberg
Over the past week Ben Cohen and I have posted several articles regarding our doubts about Obama's economic team. The reality is that many of these men have had major roles in both the deregulation that caused this crisis and the failure of government to deal with it effectively and honestly.
There are two major questions to be answered: 1) Are these men (Summers, Geithner, etc.) being hired to create policy, or as professional managers?: 2) Are these men too close to the crisis and the people involved to be effective regulators?
During our discussions, Ben and I each had one or two economists whose opinions we were waiting for before passing judgemnet on Obama's picks. Ben was waiting for famed NYU Proffessor, and student of the brilliant Jeffrey Sachs, Nouriel Roubini to comment. I was waiting to hear from former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich and UC Berkeley Proffessor Brad DeLong. And both of us were interested in Nobel-laureate Paul Krugman's thoughts.
It seems that the votes are in and everyone is happy with this team.
First to Roubini. For a man who is foten reffered to as "Dr. Doom" for his pessemisitc economic prognostication, he seems to be quite upbeat about the team. In fact he could hardly have offered more effusive praise. When asked during an interview with Newsweek, his initial thoughts on the team were that
"The choices are excellent… I have great respect for both Geithner as well as Larry Summers. I
think both of them in top roles in economics in the administration were
good moves. I think very highly of them both."
Later in the interview he is asked a very pointed question:
"Your view of the economic future is often a bit less than optimistic. What does Obama's team signal about what could be coming?"
Responding:
"Look,
he wants to get things done, so he's choosing a really terrific team.
To me, it says that he's choosing people who have great experience.
He's choosing people who are pragmatic and who realize the severity of
the national problem we're facing. They're knowledgeable about markets,
about the economy and the political process in Washington. These are
the very best people he could have chosen. I can't look too far, but
it's a very good signal of what he wants to do."
Wow. "These are
the very best people he could have chosen." is some pretty damn high praise. That's one for Obama.
Second is UC Berkeley Proffessor J. Bradford DeLong, who has a long working relationship with Christina Romer, Obama's pick to be the cheif economic researcher. From his blog:
On Romer:
- World-class expert on the Great Depression: if you want to avoid
any of the mistakes made during the Great Depression, she is the one to
hire.
- World-class expert on monetary and fiscal policy: encyclopedic
knowledge of their history–since we need a CEA chair who knows more
about stabilization policy than about tax or labor or industrial
organization policy.
- Very good at explaining economics: great similarities between
teaching Econ 1 and teaching the White House staff about economics.
- Very good at making people believe that relatively complicated ideas about economics are simple facts of nature.
On Geithner and Summers:
- Geithner, Summers, Orszag–world-class appointments; at least as well qualified as anybody else in the world for these jobs.
Wow. Again pretty much the highest praise one could imagine. Obama is 2 for 2 so far.
Stay tuned for the opinions of Krugman and Reich, which will be posted later today.
by Ari Rutenberg
Over the past week Ben Cohen and I have posted several articles regarding our doubts about Obama's economic team. The reality is that many of these men have had major roles in both the deregulation that caused this crisis and the failure of government to deal with it effectively and honestly.
There are two major questions to be answered: 1) Are these men (Summers, Geithner, etc.) being hired to create policy, or as professional managers?: 2) Are these men too close to the crisis and the people involved to be effective regulators?
During our discussions, Ben and I each had one or two economists whose opinions we were waiting for before passing judgemnet on Obama's picks. Ben was waiting for famed NYU Proffessor, and student of the brilliant Jeffrey Sachs, Nouriel Roubini to comment. I was waiting to hear from former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich and UC Berkeley Proffessor Brad DeLong. And both of us were interested in Nobel-laureate Paul Krugman's thoughts.
It seems that the votes are in and everyone is happy with this team.
First to Roubini. For a man who is foten reffered to as "Dr. Doom" for his pessemisitc economic prognostication, he seems to be quite upbeat about the team. In fact he could hardly have offered more effusive praise. When asked during an interview with Newsweek, his initial thoughts on the team were that
think both of them in top roles in economics in the administration were
good moves. I think very highly of them both."
Later in the interview he is asked a very pointed question:
Responding:
he wants to get things done, so he's choosing a really terrific team.
To me, it says that he's choosing people who have great experience.
He's choosing people who are pragmatic and who realize the severity of
the national problem we're facing. They're knowledgeable about markets,
about the economy and the political process in Washington. These are
the very best people he could have chosen. I can't look too far, but
it's a very good signal of what he wants to do."
Wow. "These are
the very best people he could have chosen." is some pretty damn high praise. That's one for Obama.
Second is UC Berkeley Proffessor J. Bradford DeLong, who has a long working relationship with Christina Romer, Obama's pick to be the cheif economic researcher. From his blog:
On Romer:
- World-class expert on the Great Depression: if you want to avoid
any of the mistakes made during the Great Depression, she is the one to
hire. - World-class expert on monetary and fiscal policy: encyclopedic
knowledge of their history–since we need a CEA chair who knows more
about stabilization policy than about tax or labor or industrial
organization policy. - Very good at explaining economics: great similarities between
teaching Econ 1 and teaching the White House staff about economics.- Very good at making people believe that relatively complicated ideas about economics are simple facts of nature.
On Geithner and Summers:
- Geithner, Summers, Orszag–world-class appointments; at least as well qualified as anybody else in the world for these jobs.
Wow. Again pretty much the highest praise one could imagine. Obama is 2 for 2 so far.
Stay tuned for the opinions of Krugman and Reich, which will be posted later today.