According to today's Washington Post Obama's brain trust for economic issues includes people like Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin, holdovers from the Clinton administration who helped move us toward an unfettered globalization. If these are his only advisors we could be in for trouble.
I'm not saying they don't belong on Obama's economic team but there are a number of economists, who have been more critical of the economic policies that began to get us into this mess. Superb economists (two of whom won the Nobel prize) who should be giving Obama economic advice include Robert Reich, Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, and Robert Kuttner. They all understand the current economic orthodoxy yet have been wise enough to criticize its excesses before crisis struck. Let's hope Obama picks at least one of them for his close advisers.
I have to say that I'm delighted Obama won, but he will be under immediate pressure from all kinds of interests. We the people (whoever that may be) have to be willing to put pressure of our own from the get-go or we will lose out on this opportunity.
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Comments: 11
Good post Ethan keep us on our toes.
Success will breed civility and is really the only path. In other words, Obama needs the best and brightest in this administration, regardless of stripe. There's no need to bend the choices for some criterion of inclusiveness--it would be a serious mistake if such distractions led to a less-qualified staff or cabinet. Of course, down scale I'm sure that diversity will be encouraged in the administration.