Any hopes that President Obama might somehow recognize the utter failure of his economic policies and seek new ideas and directions were dashed by his selection Monday of Princeton University economist Alan E. Krueger to succeed Austan D. Goolsbee as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Krueger previously served as an assistant secretary of the Treasury under Timothy Geithner. Obama praised Krueger's work during the first two years of his administration, and said Krueger's chief task in the new job will be to help develop policy recommendations to get the stagnating economy growing again.


Don't expect any new ideas from Krueger. He was among the architects of such economic stimulus failures as the "cash for clunkers" program. As The Washington Examiner's Conn Carroll pointed out in Beltway Confidential, the clunkers initiative destroyed half a million functioning automobiles as a means of providing automakers a short-term boost in sales. Like all addictions, however, the clunkers fix soon wore off, leaving automakers with the same problem they had before: a recessionary economy and policies in Washington almost certain to prolong the misery.
Krueger first came to public notice during the Clinton years when he co-authored a study seeking to disprove the common-sense economic truth that minimum-wage increases make it more costly for employers to hire teenagers and other low-skilled workers, which means they hire fewer of them, thus driving up unemployment. Legions of liberal politicians and academics have endlessly quoted the Krueger study to challenge critics of higher minimum wages. So don't be surprised if sometime in the near future Obama endorses minimum-wage increases as an incentive for job creation.


Krueger brings other novel arguments to the table as Obama's new chief economic adviser. On energy policy, he is an advocate of the idea that the market prices of oil and natural gas do not reflect certain "externalities" that capture the social costs of using fossil fuels. In testimony before Congress last year, Krueger said "private market decisions can be inefficient when market prices do not reflect the full social costs. Oil and natural gas prices, for example, do not reflect the environmental harm caused by the release of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere associated with oil and gas production and consumption. In addition, the price of oil does not reflect the risks associated with U.S. oil dependency or the costs of traffic congestion. Tax provisions can address this problem by incorporating the social costs into the price of the resources."

We might take such analyses more seriously if their advocates were also willing to take into account the "externalities" associated with federal spending programs. For example, when assessing the $859 billion price tag of the stimulus program, we should also include the value of everything taxpayers would have bought with that money had they spent it themselves instead of having Washington's professional politicians spend it for them.

About time the PAC-10, PAC-12, whatever, kicks the shit out of the SEC. If you want a sure bet. Take ND over South Florida. Parlay it. Give the points and take the over.

I've no idea why AT&T is buying T-Mobile. If this deal doesn't go through, T-Mobile is gone in 2 years. Their business model is flawed, and they are being squeezed by AT&T and Verizon on the high-end and Sprint and Metro on the other end. If Obama cares about jobs, he should put the squeeze on the DOJ to back off. Maybe the CWA union bosses should send Luca Brazzi to visit Obama late at night (lol).

We need a guy like Teddy in a time like this.

I always wonder why we should have business CEOs consulting with the President about the economy. A CEO's job is to extract as much wealth as possible from the nation into the hands of the corporation and/or stockholders. I fail to see how that would make them remotely qualified to make judgments on macroeconomic policy. Hell, I think you could make the case that they would be a detriment.

Breaker, interesting factoid. The reason why that tomato will bust a hole in your wall is because a giant corporation, in order to increase their productivity, pick the tomato while it's green, put it in a chamber filled with ethylene gass to artificially ripen it, and sell it to the store. Regardless of the ripening stage, it is about as flavorful as it was when it was picked from the vine.

Stores are now selling what they call "vine ripened tomatoes". They do the exact same thing, they just cut a bit of the vine off and leave it there.

That's why I have my own (almost organic) garden, and do a ton of produce shopping at farmer's markets.