Romer To Leave White House

[BurtWorm]

Sigh...

(It's from an unnamed source, so take it all with a little grain of salt. But still...)


http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/08/romer_to_leave.php


August 5, 2010 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (43) |

By Kirk Victor

Christina Romer, chairwoman of Pres. Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, has decided to resign, according to a source familiar with her plans.

Romer, an economics professor at the University of California (Berkeley) before taking the key admin post, did not respond to repeated calls to her office.

"She has been frustrated," a source with insight into the WH economics team said. "She doesn't feel that she has a direct line to the president. She would be giving different advice than Larry Summers , who does have a direct line to the president."

"She is ostensibly the chief economic adviser, but she doesn't seem to be playing that role," the source said. The WH has been pounded for its faulty forecast that unemployment would not top 8% after its economic stimulus proposal passed.

Instead, the jobless rate is 9.5%, after exceeding 10% last year. It was "a horribly inaccurate forecast," said Bert Ely, a banking consultant. "You have to wonder why Summers isn't the one that should be taking the fall. But Larry is a pretty good bureaucratic infighter."

[Jackpine Radical]

1. The fact that Summers is anywhere other than

on the scrapheap of history is testimony to his bureaucratic infighting skills.

I hate fucks like that, who find their way unerringly through the bureaucratic maze to ever higher and more powerful positions, leaving a trail of human wreckage behind them.

[valerief]

2. Ah, the Peter Principle. Rising to one's level of incompetence. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

3. I think the Peter Principle is hopelessly invalid.

People seem to overshoot their levels of incompetence by quite a bit. Look at Bush, who fucked up in college, couldn't even make it as a 2Lt in the TANG, then failed as an oilman, etc. & went on to fail as a President. The Peter Principle should have taken him out at about age 20.

[valerief]

5. I don't think the Peter Principle applies to the privileged. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

6. You are apparently right.

And it's been that way for centuries. The officer corps of the old British military forces, on both land and sea, was largely composed of the inbred younger sons of the noble families. Amazing they were even able to keep the empire together for as long as they did.

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. I can't blame her one bit

If my counsel on the economy was being ignored in lieu of the likes of Summers (and Rubin and Geithner and all of the others on the *A-List*) I'd find something more meaningful to do with my life as well.

I remain stunned that Paul Volker is hanging in there with his time and voice.