Otherwise known as “incompetence rises to the top”!
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 [director of the National Economic Council], 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.”
Remember when everyone was explaining to me that Obama had “executive ability” because of how well his campaign operated, and I tried to explain that it wasn’t true? This is what I meant.
Summers was Treasury Secretary under Clinton for several years. He’s close to Rubin.
I know Bill C. has said that he got bad advice from these 2, but the more likely explanation is that the rot goes all the way through the Democratic party, even if Hillary would have been marginally better.
Nevertheless, Obama’s problem isn’t lack of executive experience. It’s clear he’s there to serve Wall Street. Experience would only improve his ability to serve those interests.
Romer’s leaving because she has more integrity than Obama. Experience has little to do with it.