November 24, 2008

Obama Taps Berkeley Economist for White House Team

President-elect Barack Obama announced today that Christina D. Romer, a professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, would serve as chairman of his administration’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Ms. Romer (left) earned her doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985 and has taught at Berkeley since 1988. Her best-known papers explore the successes and follies of monetary policy during the 20th century. (Not long ago she wrote an Encyclopædia Britannica entry on the Great Depression.)

In a 1994 paper titled “What Ends Recessions?” (written with her husband, David Romer, a professor of political economy at Berkeley), she argued that interest-rate reductions, not tax cuts, have played the most important role in ending American recessions since 1945. That might be bad news: In the present crisis, the Federal Reserve’s interest rates are already near zero, so there is not much scope to bring them lower.

In Monday’s announcement, Mr. Obama also confirmed this weekend’s reports that Lawrence H. Summers, a former president of Harvard University, will be director of the National Economic Council. (Harvard faculty members — including some who were among the fiercest critics of Mr. Summers’s management style during his five-year tenure as Harvard’s president — praised his appointment to Mr. Obama’s economic team today, The Boston Globe reported.)

One topic that might be on Ms. Romer’s and Mr. Summers’s lips when they stand around the White House water cooler: Earlier this year, Mr. Summers’s successor at Harvard, Drew Gilpin Faust, reportedly vetoed a faculty committee’s recommendation to hire Ms. Romer away from Berkeley. The rejection was reported in May by David Warsh, a freelance economics journalist, and by The Harvard Crimson. Ms. Faust has not spoken publicly about the matter. —David Glenn

Comments

1. Our New President -Elect promised “Change” and all we are seeing are several “Administration Retreads” being appointed to Cabinet level positions of power …….while “Second String” jobs seem to be going to people relatively newer to the Washington DC scene…………….The Message : “Change ; but not too much” and here people were worried about an Black American as President…….it seems its the same Book -different cover !

   — A Sad Florida Resident    Nov 25, 03:38 AM    #

2. Give him a chance…my gosh.

   — DS    Nov 25, 09:16 AM    #

3. Obama is the same old, same old.

   — dp    Nov 25, 09:22 AM    #

4. Ms. Romer or Dr. Romer? Does she has any practical experiences outside of academia?

   — Michael    Nov 25, 09:23 AM    #

5. Change in the ways things are done. Change in policy choices. Change in how parties work with each other. Change in the way we treat each other. Change in the management of our economy—taking care of those who have been forgotten over the last eight years. Change from incompetence to competence. Think, don’t parrot sound bites.

   — Amen    Nov 25, 09:35 AM    #

6. Who cares what practical experience she has? I hope she understands the economy!

   — LJ    Nov 25, 09:40 AM    #

7. We are always so critical of people. We always think we can do so much better but it’s funny, why don’t those who think they can do so much better, run for the position.

   Obama is a human being like us all. This means that at the end of each day, he is going to make the best choices for this country and the people to the best of his ability.

   Life with negative people remind us that you can never please everyone! truth of the matter, they can’t please themself! That’s why they focus on what’s wrong with other people!

   Congrats on Obama for seeking out options for the people of america, to have opportunities for a better life style!(smile)

   Peace!

   — Dirk A. Warner    Nov 25, 09:49 AM    #

8. With Larry Summers calling the economic shots, this is change I can believe in.

   — Packard    Nov 25, 09:59 AM    #

9. Amen to Amen. Change does not mean grabbing some unknowns (think Palin) and thrusting them into the limelight. So far, Obama’s designated appointments appear to have both credentials and a wealth of relevant experience. Let’s hope for the sake of all of us that they live up to their billing.

   — CW    Nov 25, 10:10 AM    #

10. Note to a “sad Florida resident”…Cuba is only 90 minutes away…go there and be happy.

    — Amen and Hallelujah !!    Nov 25, 10:43 AM    #

11. If we look back a few regimes and remember, we will see that Bill Clinton infused the Freddy Mac mess. Therefore, my vote is not the same old, same old. Also, why has education been put on a back burner – it is our future. Attention to education would be action speaking of change. I see retroactive positioning with the Clintons.
    An Educator

    — kathy    Nov 25, 11:09 AM    #

12. There will be little substantive change, if any, and anyone who believed there would be are – let’s just say there will not be. As for Ms Romer’s argument that tax cuts don’t stimulate economies, it sure helped the economy when Reagan pushed them through after the Carter years. I don’t argue that tax cuts alone do the trick, a nation in debt must crawl out of that hole as well.

    — Cicero    Nov 25, 11:39 AM    #

13. #12 – I disagree. Substantive change occurs when there is a paradigm shift or a reworking of the foundations of how business is done. The players could be the same, but if they are working from a different paradigm, the outcome can and should be different. I will wait and see what paradigm Obama puts in place for how the business of government gets done before I stand in judgment.

    — DL    Nov 25, 12:10 PM    #

14. To Amen: We have seen zero evidence thus far (sound bites & BS do not count) of a single one of the changes that you listed. You need to apply the “think, don’t parrot sound bites” advice to yourself. Also, DL, paradigm shift most definitely does not represent substantive change – different actions and different results do, not paradigm shift. And I will stand in judgment until I witness something other than empty words and moronic cheerleading. The voices of dissent will never be silenced! Get used to it!!

    — Obummer    Nov 25, 12:14 PM    #

15. I agree with the comments made by “Amen.” I don’t understand the views of some who equate change solely with “new, inexperienced faces.” I remember Pres. Elect Obama speaking of change as “a change in the way that we do business in Washington.” That can happen with the appointments that he has made. He sets the tone.

    — Barbara    Nov 25, 12:25 PM    #

16. Hey folks, these people aren’t even in the jobs yet. What I care about is how they perform, not so much where they come from – and that they are NOT part of the previous admin’s economic team, which failed.

    — ap    Nov 25, 12:26 PM    #

17. Obummer – I have no problems listening to the ‘voices of dissent’. it is a welcome change from the ‘agree with Bush or be called unpatriotic’ stance of the last 8 years. I simply choose not to be one until I see evidence that it is necessary. Also, if you are familiar with business, you will understand that operations change when there is a change in the business model or direction of the company from the top (in other words, a ‘paradigm shift’). The company doesn’t have to change every employee it has to produce a change in operations.

    — DL    Nov 25, 12:33 PM    #

18. A collection of DC insiders. If we wanted the Clinton Administration Redux we would have voted for Hillary.

    This is priceless:

    “In a 1994 paper titled “What Ends Recessions?” (written with her husband, David Romer, a professor of political economy at Berkeley), she argued that interest-rate reductions, not tax cuts, have played the most important role in ending American recessions since 1945. That might be bad news: In the present crisis, the Federal Reserve’s interest rates are already near zero, so there is not much scope to bring them lower.”

    Enough said.

    These appointments – proponents of globalization and free trade – contradict the remaining campaign promises Obama has not yet broken. Obama also plans to run up huge deficits and leave the Bush tax cuts in place. In short, there is little that Obama will do differently from President Bush.

    There’s your “change”.

    Still believe in it?

    — TRB    Nov 25, 01:14 PM    #

19. DL – Yes, my extensive grounding in business is why I understand that paradigm shift (change in thinking, direction, business model, or whatever one chooses to call it) means absolutely nothing until behaviors, routines, and, consequently, outcomes change. I see no difference between the rah-rah of late and that of the past 8 years, just a different group of out-of-touch cheerleaders. The apparent willingness to continue to feed the ill-conceived bailout speaks volumes about the so-called “change” to come. If you are familiar with paying taxes, prepare to become much more familiar in the near future.

    — Obummer    Nov 25, 02:42 PM    #

20. Thank God Obama is selecting people with knowledge and experience. Those individuals who think he should do the opposite are not realistic.

    — Samuel    Nov 27, 12:07 PM    #

21. The running of an Imperialist nation is complicated but having an anti-intellectual leadership has tested the U.S. in ways that are unimaginable. Yet, let it be known now that the Yale “C” student George Bush couldn’t carry a “C” average in running the wheels of government. History has begun giving him the grade he now truly merits, an “F.” The collective outcome of the Bush Administration’s leadership has been a catastrophe not just for the United States.
    Now Imperialism has found new hope in intellectual individuals. Obama was against the adventous Imperialism of the Bush years. Let us hope that a more intellectual leadership will put in place policies that will not only benefit the population of the U.S. but that will treat the rest of the globe with the respect it deserves. Just think what it would have been like to have Bush as the President during the Cuban Missile Crises and you will begin to understand the differences. Welcome Dr. Romer we’ve been waiting for people like you!

    — ouramericas    Dec 1, 02:23 PM    #

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