U.S. News and World Reports (fairly conservative rag) reports on the economic team
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The Obama Economic Team
November 22, 2008 08:10 AM ET | James Pethokoukis | Permanent Link | Print
Team Obamanomics, courtesy of the WSJ:
"The team is expected to include New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner, who will be nominated as the next Treasury secretary, Mr. [Lawrence] Summers, and incoming budget director Peter Orszag. Jacob Lew, a former White House budget director, is expected to be Mr. Obama's National Economic Council chairman. Jason Furman, who coordinated economic policy for the Obama campaign, is likely to be Mr. Lew's deputy. And Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist, is expected to be the chairman of Mr. Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.
Me: These guys are not Marxists, protectionists, or believers in a return to 90 percent marginal tax rates. They are believers in free trade bolstered by an expanded government safey net for workers, increased government spending on infrastructure (green and transportation) and education to increase growth and reduce income inequality,and higher taxes (though certainly less than a 70 percent top income tax rate) to help fund it all. But will they support a) the nationalization of our banking system or b) a pricey homeowners bailout? My guess is that they will recommend doing, to use the words of Obama, "whatever it takes" to keep us out of a depression. Other than cut taxes on capital or business of higher incomes. |
