Labor Economist to Fill Key Post - Alan Krueger as Chair of WH Council of Economic Advisers

Labor Economist to Fill Key Post
By DAVID WESSEL

President Barack Obama on Monday plans to nominate Princeton University's Alan Krueger to be chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, a White House official said.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Krueger, a labor economist, is likely to provide a voice inside the administration for more-aggressive government action to bring down unemployment and, particularly, to address long-term joblessness.

Mr. Krueger, 50 years old, returned to Princeton a year ago after serving as assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy during the first two years of the Obama administration—which means he has recently cleared the sometimes treacherous Senate confirmation process.

He would succeed Austan Goolsbee, who left earlier this month to reclaim his teaching post at the University of Chicago.

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The work he has done in academia ranges from attempts to explain why job growth wasn't stronger during the 2000s, to findings that increases in the minimum wage don't depress employment, to a work showing that terrorists often come from middle-class—and often college-educated—backgrounds.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903352704576536811283720734.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Let's hope it's the start of a trend, and not just a pre-election bone to those who hold traditional Democratic values.

Cognitive dissonance to start the day kind of sucks. In spite of that, I hope you have a good one! :hi:

sadly, with democrats.

But, there is no way to even try to argue that he has built his economic "team" mostly with the usual suspects, and people who are strongly neoliberal in their core ideas with the economy.

I was heartened by this pick - it really is an outlier to the waters he normally fishes in for this kind of stuff.

However, if he has to be confirmed by the senate, I would suspect that it is going to be a miracle if he ever makes it to BOs staff.

The biggest fights have been reserved for appointmentees who can actually set policy.

As far as I can tell, Krueger has not made millions on Wall Street, which makes him an oddity in the Obama White House.