Barack Obama has selected Christina Romer to head his Council of Economic Advisors. Greg Mankiw heartily applauds this choice. Arnold Kling guesses that Austan Goolsbee was passed over because he may not have the requisite talent to build relationships outside of academia.
Update: King thinks highly of the Obama team as well. And James Hamilton chimes in positively too. Here's some information from Tyler Cowen at MR. And here's Tyler on Larry Summers' appointment to Team Obama. Brad DeLong likes the choice of Romer, although he's wondering about the Cal-Berkley teaching schedule. I'm sure y'all will find a way to cover her classes. Here's another thumbs up (via Hispanic Pundit). John Chilton concurs. And Peter Klein, who took a class with Prof. Romer and served as her head TA in a large lecture course, has good things to say about her.
Update2: I get the sense that some folks are a bit uneasy with Romer's slight Keynesian tilt, but no-one I've read is at all alarmed by her choice as CEA head, nor by any choice on Team Obama's Econ Squad
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 understands 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.
Posted by: D S Lamont | November 24, 2008 at 08:04 PM