Obama to Tap Berkeley Prof to Chair Council of Economic Advisers

Kevin Price at the Price of Business Show talked about the economic realities Obama is facing and how that is going into his decesion making on his choices. It is easy to be a critic, it is another thing to govern.

Recommend that Obama make the critical economic decisions based on sound economic modeling to evaluate the real consequences of each decision.

though as a politician that Obama is, i advice him to be analitical in any his of potential programes. At the moment what is prevalant is global economic crisis and the world is seeking for a genus to bail us out. Like Richard Nixon, let him pick the economic brain box in his domain and make do with them to achieve a credible result thereafter. May God see him through.

As an african who studied in america, it is always a pleasure to listen to ameicans debate on an interesting topic as economics; it's dynamics; productive efficiency, distributive justice, etc.But, i also have the privilege of coming from a culture with a distictively different cosmology; a worldview that does not picture the world exactly the same way americans do.i do think the current world economic crisis is beyond the american internal arguements about harvard liberalism, berkely marxism and chicago monetarism. i think the world has gone beyond these. it is time for a totally new way, that taps into the world's different worldviews, for designing a new viable world order; the robust role america will play in such a scheme not witstanding.

Re: Odinga's comment:
"Ron, Obama is a Kenyan."

Barack Obama is an American, born in Hawaii. Are you confusing Hawaii with Africa?

Or are you referring to Barack Obama's father? Yes, he was from Kenya, and returned there -- leaving Barack in Hawaii, which is where Barack was born.

Ron, Obama is a Kenyan. He was born there, and a kenya is now the American president. What will you do about that?

Republicans...Bless your hearts!

I've lived in the South (N. Texas) for long enough to know that these are the most out-of-touch, lazy, uneducated, self-righteous, and prideful people in our country.

Southern Republicans mistakenly made a "right" turn 8 yrs ago and would rather suffer America into making 3 more right turns (more yrs of national disgrace) to get us back onto course than to stop where they are, admit they made a bad turn early on, swallow their pride, reverse their course and steer us back to prosperity.

Just like their local and faithful Dallas Cowboys fans, they'd rather live life through their rear-view mirrors/ laurels than to contend with the crisis' of today.

Ironically, it may be years before they understand that "Dub-ya" set the table for Obama.

Finding the best and the brightest is easy when we agree on what they look like and where to look for them. The problem is that if you're looking for change, you've got to look somewhere else! That doesn't mean you have to "dummy down" your standards, it means simply an acknowledgment of the reality that there are people as qualified or "bright" in other places. Because they come from other places makes it more likely that their intellect has been shaped by different experiences and that they may have different views towards solutions. The greatest obstacle to change is the fear that we can't afford to try!

Get over it,Obama provided his birth certificate to factcheck.org. Its legit,he was born in the US. Obama will be president. The voters have spoken,resoundingly.

As for suggesting that there is a problem with Romer teaching at Berkley,its one of the top rated universities IN THE WORLD. Yes,the town and the students and the professors tend to be liberals. They also tend to value free speech. That means that many radical viewpoints are tolerated because that's how the market place of ideas works. Make no mistake about it though,if you are a professor at UC Berkley,your at the top of your field. Just count up the Nobel prizes of their faculty and you will get a good idea.
Is Obama going to appoint economic advisers with a more liberal viewpoint than others might? Of course. Those are the people that agree more with his and his parties economic philosophy. Those are the people that will run things the way Obama wants it run. Sorry,we have a Democratic president. Republicans lost (and lost bad) and they don't get a lot of say in things anymore. Thats often what happens when you take responsibility (which is what running for office is,taking responsibility for leading the country) and screw things up really bad. They don't hire you again,and they try not to make the same mistake twice. Thats what the American people did.

It does certainly bother me that there are people who would crush free speech and civil rights in general,because they "love America" You dont love America. You love money,and your SUV and your excessive lifestyle that may well have you in excessive debt.
Its as if I were to say,"of course I love my girlfriend,she gave me a really nice Logitech remote control for Christmas. Yea I love her,shes really hot and great in bed too. Guess what,that's not love. If you love your girlfriend you love who she is,not what she gives you and what she does for you. If you love America,you love what she stands for. You love the freedom we have here. That includes the freedom to disagree with the direction the country is taking. That even includes the freedom to not like her if you so choose. You dont have to agree. In fact,go ahead and argue. Tell those people why America is great,but if you love America,dont try to shut them up,but rather try to prove them wrong.

I remember someone said to me a few years ago when I suggested that the Iraq war was a mess and we had to change course somehow or it would get even worse,"you have to support your president" (fortunately I was wrong and Bush's advisers were right and the surge worked. I didn't think it would and I have to give Bush credit for it. it really did help.I can still complain that it was years to late and small consolation to the families that lost their sons and daughters looking for non existent WMDs without proper body armor) I responded to them,no,this is America,in Cuba,you have to support your president,in Iraq,under Sadam,you HAD to support your president or risk having your genitals shocked with a car battery. Her in America,you choose to support your president. Or,if hes screwing up,you can choose not to support him.

For those of you who were saying those things under Bush,you should be thankful you were wrong. You now get to disagree with the president. Furthermore,us bleeding heart,"American hating" liberals,while cheering for OUR president,the one WE elected,who we beleive will do great things,will defend your right to trash Obamas policies,and even call him a commie if you so choose.

If history has proven anything, it is that the "collegiate, text book response" to an ongoing crisis does anything but ameliorate the situation. And unfortunately, that is all Romer will have to offer. If her responses to the questions on the "Fast Money" segment of CNBC today are any indication of what she knows and brings to the table....we are just as well off as having Bush's administration maintain control.

I am so very worried that the Federal Reserve is just building a portfolio of depressed bank stocks at the tax payer's expense for the sole reward of those in power. The tax payer has NO say in what is transpiring...which is pure criminal activity. The Fed says just enough to get their agenda in order, then changes their plan to fit their greedy ideals (can't possibly tell me Paulson and his Goldman cronies aren't profiting off of this sham).

Hey, let's just throw a few more hundred billion into the mix...maybe something will reverse the "crisis of confidence"!! Maybe, if these economists stop and think, they will realize that investors just want no part in companies than have ridiculously risky debt that is most likely going to cripple the companies and force bankruptcy unless federally bailed out. And just how much more paper can we print before our country debt is downgraded and the dollar collapses????? I wonder....

Marx is turning out to have been right. Capitalism--a mode of commodity production whose purpose is to generate profit through the extraction of surplus value to accumulate capital--does not work. Capitalism maintains all human beings in a state of material insecurity. It's "free market" variant is susceptible to with periodic crises that reult in much human misery and creeping government intervention (mistakenly called socialism). Government's tinkering with stock, financial, housing, and credit markets will not save this system. Corporations are responsible their shareholders, not the government or society. Obama's economists will simply recommend more government oversight and regulation of corporate activities, and infrastructural investments. People will not get their homes back. Unemployment will continue to rise. Financial markets will remain volatile, reaching an equilibrium only when buyers and sellers discsard their mutual anxieties. This is a thoroughly unpredictable state of minds. Poor Obama. This is no time to assume the presidency.

I mean I don't agree with all Obamas appointments, but I want to see his college transcripts, and records from Harvard and Columbia. I want to see his birth certicate so he can prove he even has the right to be president.

If I wanted to go to work for burger king, I would have to at least produce my transcripts. How can he even be President without proof he is even a citizen?

The rest of it is a moot point if he is not even eligible, and that point is still working its way through the supreme court as I write this.

I found an E-mail Addrress to Dr. Romer at UC Berkley and since it was only one found so far I sent a message along these lines.
Economic Package- a cheap guaranteed fix
Pull back all the money the Busch regieme has gifted out. Hey What if! everyone below a certain tax bracket was given 1 Million dollars to: Pay off mortgage, buy a car, get Heath insurance or start a retirement savings plan would that not be the end all economic stimulus?

A poster say Columbia study said no economic stimulus is provided by tax cuts. Try raising taxes to 100% and see how many people go to work. Grants to Columbia appear to provide absolutely no useful information.
By the way Bush tax cuts were good for the economy not Marxist "tax breaks for the rich".

Can she type?

Romer would be a good choice if she taught somewhere other than UC Berkley, the hotbed of anti-Americanism

Christina Romer’s appointment means that we will have at the Council of Economic Advisers an economist with a background in highly relevant economic history and with moderate Keynesian sympathies - just what we need. It is to be hoped that she underatands that one of the key lessons of Keynes is the importance of constructive US leadership in international economic cooperation - including in the international coordination of key economic policies, in building up effective international economic institutions, and in safeguarding free trade. She will be familiar with literature like Donald Moggridge’s biography of Keynes and Donald Markwell’s “John Maynard Keynes and International Relations”, which I think are very helpful in thinking and working our way - nationally and globally - through the present muddle.

1 A Columbia University study in the 1980's showed absolutely no "economic" stimulus is provided by tax cuts. None. Another easily understood example was when Clinton raised taxes, and the economy grew so fast the idiot Greenspan RAISED INTEREST RATES EIGHT TIMES to slow the growth. Too many people were working for his taste. Hang him. Meanwhile, the US had so much revenue, we actually paid DOWN the National Debt in 1999 and 2000 AND had a balanced (NON-BORROWING) Budget.

But some here seem to think you can CUT revenue and BORROW yourself out of debt. "Real Geniuses" I call 'em. Digging faster to get out of that hole, the fools. These Bailouts will not assist ANYTHING except enrich the criminals of Wall Street and D.C., while greasing the wheels of the Depression tank about to overrun and flatten the entire world's economy.

A more recent event proving it so (that tax cuts stimulate nothing but the ultrawealthy's bank accounts) was the obscene tax cuts Bush pushed through in early 2001, immediately throwing the balanced Budget into the red after inheriting a $150 billion surplus.

2.To all the economic geniuses here, "Socialism" is not bailing out corporations. When governments and corporations act in sync, with benefits to corporations at taxpayer expense, the proper term is Fascism.

And, as you can see today, the Fascists in charge have just burdened the taxpayers with a $ 20 billion "bailout" of Citi Group, including "co-signing" of another $308 billion in their criminal "derivative" losses, which will surely come. While staying absolutely silent when Citi cut 53,000 more employees: No "bailout" for them!!

I enjoy the hell out of the commenter saying Bush did ok with the economy until he practiced socialism "at the end of his term", and states he is a graduate of UCLA.

A UCLA education ain't what it used to be, apparently.

This Berkeley professor is respectable. At least Obama is not tapping the extremist, idealogue that the Bush administration tapped to get the Dept. of Justice thinking that suspending one of our most fundamental Constitutional rights, i.e Habeas Corpus was a good idea. That Professor is John Yoo of Berkeley's Boalt Law School. He, Jay Bybee (9th Circuit Court now)and Alberto Gonzales made it so that torture became a policy of the United States. If Obama recognizes these guys in any way other than prosecuting them, then you will know that nothing has changed

Guess it is still true that Republicans take pride in being ignorant and anti-intellectual.

They scoff at all those who excell and might have the knowledge to help get us out of the mess the Republican party and its economic philosophy got us into. At the same time these cynics offer nothing but the same old failed policies that have so weakened our economy and all but destroyed the middle-class.