Christina Romer Leaving White House
Council of Economic Advisors chair Christina Romer becomes the latest senior official to leave the Obama White House.
Council of Economic Advisors chair Christina Romer becomes the latest senior official to leave the Obama White House.
“She has been frustrated,” a source with insight into the WH economics team said. “She doesn’t feel that she has a direct line to the president. She would be giving different advice than Larry Summers [director of the National Economic Council], who does have a direct line to the president.”
“She is ostensibly the chief economic adviser, but she doesn’t seem to be playing that role,” the source said. The WH has been pounded for its faulty forecast that unemployment would not top 8% after its economic stimulus proposal passed.
Instead, the jobless rate is 9.5%, after exceeding 10% last year. It was “a horribly inaccurate forecast,” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant. “You have to wonder why Summers isn’t the one that should be taking the fall. But Larry is a pretty good bureaucratic infighter.”
Economics, like Intelligence, has too many overlapping advisory bodies. That means that the ability to work the system and get the ear of the president are at a premium. While Summers can be a prickly personality, he’s a past master at playing the game.
My guess is that she was shocked to learn that the Chief Economic Advisor wasn’t the chief economic advisor. In all likelihood the real chief economic advisor is David Axelrod.
“My guess is that she was shocked to learn that the Chief Economic Advisor wasn’t the chief economic advisor. In all likelihood the real chief economic advisor is David Axelrod.”
LOL Now THAT’s entertainment!!
You have to imagine that the person who co-authored the currently definitive work on tax multipliers is a bit flummoxed – and compromised – by cuurent policy.
Further, confidentiality considerations prevent me from making full disclosures, but I know “people” who know Summers. The reports aren’t, as they say, sparkling.
I was wondering when this would happen. I have little doubt that Summers has no issues with intellectual dishonesty, but I felt that Romer would and that her tenure would be short. So she’ll toddle of back to the relatively safe haven of academia and probably larger paychecks as well. Can’t say as I blame her.