EPThttp://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/jason-and-the-obamanauts/
OK, this furor over Jason Furman’s appointment is silly, on two levels.
1. Furman is a very good guy, with a solid track record as a progressive. You can disagree with him about Walmart — and I do — but his heart is clearly with those who want more social justice and a stronger safety net.
2. He’s not, despite what the story says, Obama’s chief economic policy advisor — he’s the economic policy director, which is a process job: basically, he organizes other people to provide advice. Obviously there could be a real problem if the policy director steered the candidate away from progressive advice, but Furman is, as I said, a solid progressive, and well suited to the job of honest broker.
Maybe I’m wrong, but my sense is that Jason Furman has become a proxy target for some Obama supporters who, now that the Great Satanness has been defeated, are suddenly starting to have the queasy feeling that their hero might be a bit of a …. centrist. I’m tempted to say I told you so; in fact, I guess I just did. But that’s all in the past now.
Anyway, lay off Jason Furman, a good guy who will do his best to defeat a candidate who gets his economic advice from Phil Gramm.
EDIT: i'm eating this post. it's nice to see a guy like krugman vouching cred for furman but it doesn't completely resolve the issue.
some of Furman's quotes:
On Wal-Mart
1. “The collateral damage from these efforts to get Wal-Mart to raise its wages and benefits is way too enormous and damaging to working people and the economy more broadly for me to sit idly by and sing “Kum-Ba-Ya” in the interests of progressive harmony.” Slate, 6/26/06
2. “Unfortunately, what happened in Maryland probably is something of a watershed and will create a strong example. But the legislation will not help Wal-Mart workers in Maryland, and my hope is that other states will see that punitive efforts like this won’t be successful.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1/16/06
3. “Wall Mart is a progressive success story.” Washington Post, 11/28/05
On Social Security
1. When asked about private accounts and a higher retirement age, Furman replied “You know, some of this accounts debate is a little bit misplaced. We had a great discussion at the American Enterprise Institute last week of a bipartisan plan. This plan had accounts in it. It’s a good plan because the plan recognized that we needed to bring more revenue into Social Security to maintain the type of replacement rates and retirements that people are expecting. It brought benefits down, but it brought new money in through accounts. Thought it was a good start on the plan.” CNBC, 6/27/06
On Infrastructure as Part of a Stimulus Package
1. “I do think…you should apply a very high degree of skepticism to infrastructure proposals. Proposals that don’t spend out until, for example, 2009, are not going to help the economy when it’s needed, might destabilize it when it’s not needed, and will be offset by the Federal Reserve.” Senate Finance Hearing, 1/24/08
On Trade
1. “I hope the lesson that Democratic candidates take from this is not to bash trade and call for protectionism, but instead to call for a robust safety net. Those are all the best answers.” NPR Morning Edition, 10/9/07
2. “The best thing we can do for free trade is focus on strengthening domestic policies that strengthen social insurance.” International Herald Tribune, 1/31/07
On Labor Policy
1. “I support raising the minimum wage and giving the bottom 10% of wage earners a pay hike. But when we’re talking about workers at the 30th or 40th percentile, spreading the cost of higher wages across consumers more broadly becomes a less attractive proposition.” Slate, 6/26/06
2. “The idea that people are worse off than 20 or 30 years ago is so ludicrous. And I’ve come to appreciate how damaging that is.” New York Times, 8/2/06
3. After the Circuit City mass firings, Furman noted “the flexibility of the U.S. labor force seems to be one reason that recessions have become less frequent and unemployment is less of a problem than in Europe.” International Herald Tribune, 4/5/07
1. “The collateral damage from these efforts to get Wal-Mart to raise its wages and benefits is way too enormous and damaging to working people and the economy more broadly for me to sit idly by and sing “Kum-Ba-Ya” in the interests of progressive harmony.” Slate, 6/26/06
2. “Unfortunately, what happened in Maryland probably is something of a watershed and will create a strong example. But the legislation will not help Wal-Mart workers in Maryland, and my hope is that other states will see that punitive efforts like this won’t be successful.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1/16/06
3. “Wall Mart is a progressive success story.” Washington Post, 11/28/05
On Social Security
1. When asked about private accounts and a higher retirement age, Furman replied “You know, some of this accounts debate is a little bit misplaced. We had a great discussion at the American Enterprise Institute last week of a bipartisan plan. This plan had accounts in it. It’s a good plan because the plan recognized that we needed to bring more revenue into Social Security to maintain the type of replacement rates and retirements that people are expecting. It brought benefits down, but it brought new money in through accounts. Thought it was a good start on the plan.” CNBC, 6/27/06
On Infrastructure as Part of a Stimulus Package
1. “I do think…you should apply a very high degree of skepticism to infrastructure proposals. Proposals that don’t spend out until, for example, 2009, are not going to help the economy when it’s needed, might destabilize it when it’s not needed, and will be offset by the Federal Reserve.” Senate Finance Hearing, 1/24/08
On Trade
1. “I hope the lesson that Democratic candidates take from this is not to bash trade and call for protectionism, but instead to call for a robust safety net. Those are all the best answers.” NPR Morning Edition, 10/9/07
2. “The best thing we can do for free trade is focus on strengthening domestic policies that strengthen social insurance.” International Herald Tribune, 1/31/07
On Labor Policy
1. “I support raising the minimum wage and giving the bottom 10% of wage earners a pay hike. But when we’re talking about workers at the 30th or 40th percentile, spreading the cost of higher wages across consumers more broadly becomes a less attractive proposition.” Slate, 6/26/06
2. “The idea that people are worse off than 20 or 30 years ago is so ludicrous. And I’ve come to appreciate how damaging that is.” New York Times, 8/2/06
3. After the Circuit City mass firings, Furman noted “the flexibility of the U.S. labor force seems to be one reason that recessions have become less frequent and unemployment is less of a problem than in Europe.” International Herald Tribune, 4/5/07
