Obama’s Economic Advisors

"Obamanomics" is the topic of a Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) about Barack Obama’s economic advisers.  Key economists  mentioned are David Cutler, Jeffrey Liebman and Austan Goolsbee.

I don’t put much information content on any candidate’s advisers, because economic policy tends to be based on politics rather than economics.  President Bush’s steel tariff was not based on the advice of his economists, but on the advice of his political handlers.  Bush had found economists who favored Social Security reform, but when push came to shove, Bush did not push for reform.  And it’s not just Bush, either, though his examples are at top of mind.  Nixon’s wage and price controls were hardly the recommendation of his economic advisers.

Am I too cynical about presidential policies?