Changes Coming to CEA?
Greg Mankiw notes that the Council of Economic Advisors, in the absence of good results, is ballyhooing what great people work there. This seems like a) typical government/academic focus on process over result, b) self-congratulatory rubbish, or c) the bittersweet onset of preemptive nostalgia of a team that is about to be broken up. I'm guessing it's c (although this is not exactly like breaking up the Yankees after 2001). Romer can't hang on much longer. She has to be bitter that her integrity was forced through the meatgrinder of DC politics, but much of that is her own fault.
UPDATE: I failed to take a peek at the report that Mankiw cites, but via the guys at Say Anything, who never let anything slip by, I checked out the WaPo's coverage. You will rarely see a more stark admission of failure and defeatism than the notion that high unemployment is going to be a "fact of life" for the remainder of Obama's term. This is an admission the the now $860 billion stimulus was a failure, but also, more disturbingly, that Obama's team are flummoxed as to what to do now. Obama has three more years but they are resigned to high unemployment. They admit to no ability to improve the employment outlook. Stunning really. Frankly, I could give them just three or four policies that would unleash employment like a rocketship, but they are throwing in the towel. Why? (Australia is adding lots of jobs, Canada is creating jobs, what is wrong with us?) Are they wearing idealogical blinders and couldn't possibly fathom the role that tax cuts and deregulation might play or do they consider these not feasible politically? Now the most important question, if Obama's economic team doesn't think they can improve the employment picture, why don't they all resign so a new team can try...or why doesn't the Obama administration stand down and let someone else take over economic policy-making?
UPDATE: I failed to take a peek at the report that Mankiw cites, but via the guys at Say Anything, who never let anything slip by, I checked out the WaPo's coverage. You will rarely see a more stark admission of failure and defeatism than the notion that high unemployment is going to be a "fact of life" for the remainder of Obama's term. This is an admission the the now $860 billion stimulus was a failure, but also, more disturbingly, that Obama's team are flummoxed as to what to do now. Obama has three more years but they are resigned to high unemployment. They admit to no ability to improve the employment outlook. Stunning really. Frankly, I could give them just three or four policies that would unleash employment like a rocketship, but they are throwing in the towel. Why? (Australia is adding lots of jobs, Canada is creating jobs, what is wrong with us?) Are they wearing idealogical blinders and couldn't possibly fathom the role that tax cuts and deregulation might play or do they consider these not feasible politically? Now the most important question, if Obama's economic team doesn't think they can improve the employment picture, why don't they all resign so a new team can try...or why doesn't the Obama administration stand down and let someone else take over economic policy-making?
UPDATE: Wow, do I feel bad for Romer, she looks awful. Hey out of work Americans - you can now pay rent and put food on the table with something called "trajectory." Look at all that trajectory!!!
posted by Donny Baseball at 9:54 AM
2 Comments:
if Obama's economic team doesn't think they can improve the employment picture, why don't they all resign so a new team can try...or why doesn't the Obama administration stand down and let someone else take over economic policy-making?
DB, You are assuming that the function of the Obama CEA is to devise policy which will foster econoomic growth and job creation. But those are your goals... goals the administration may not share at all.
If instead their function is to highlight crises which will then not be allowed to go to waste while giving academic credence to progressive "solutions" designed to take advantage of those crises, well then the CEA isn't really doing such a bad job after all.
Even allowing for Obama's lack of any substantive economic or business training or experience, the failure is simply too glaring to chalk up to mere ineptitude.
'Course, on the other hand, with Jared Bernstein on staff...
Yes, that's my idealism/political naivete kicking in again. It happens from time to time.
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