Benjamin Kirby Responds to My Post

Benjamin Kirby answers my questions about the Clinton administration's economic team. Kirby was a low level staffer in the Clinton administration. Kirby has a great story about Mickey Kantor that may or may not be true. If true it confirms my suspicion that Kantor one of dumbest people in the administration.

Unfortunately, Kirby couldn't answer my question about Robert Rubin's and Joseph Stiglitz's working relationship. Stiglitz's is more progressive than the neoliberal Rubin. Where Rubin and Stiglitz disagreed is on the size of the deficit reduction package in 1993. Former Clinton administratin Council of Economic Advisers, Laura Tyson, reviewed both Rubin's and Stiglitz's books and weighs their differences. What is interesting is the pro-business Rubin supported vetoing welfare reform (Rubin supports government and private sector anti-poverty programs.) and Stiglitz helped create "third way" neoliberal economic policy theory. Rubin's and Stiglitz's debates were more about policy and both of them could make excellent arguments to counter each other and Kirby should have been in the room with a tape recorder.

These days Stiglitz is calling the Obama economic team incompetent or in the pocket of the banks. Rubin said that while he was at Citigroup "virtually nobody" saw the financial collapse coming. Guess which one is keeping a lower profile.



Agree or disagree with Rubin or Stiglitz they are both smarter than you will ever be. Both are better than former Bush amdinistration economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey. Only a true hack like Lindsey would argue that it wasn't the stimulus, but TARP (the bank bailout) and the FDIC that kept unemployment from rising to 15.7 percent. Lindsey advised President George W. Bush that the tax cuts would pay for themselves. One area that Rubin and Stiglitz agree on is that the surplus should have been used to pay off borrowed debt.

Gene Sperling Back At National Economic Council

Joy-Ann Reid and Benjamin Kirby should be forewarned before going into cardiac arrest. I am going to offer President Barack Obama praise.

Obama's selection of Gene Sperling as director of the National Economic Council maybe the best appointment he has made. The NEC was created by President Bill Clinton's executive order. Much like President Richard Nixon Office of Management and Budget to be an in-house think tank and deal with the intricacies of the massive federal budget. Clinton created the NEC to be an economic think tank. Economic policy heavyweights Robert Rubin and Laura Tyson. Sterling was Tyson's replacement under Clinton.

To shows what happens when a President doesn't take the NEC seriously, George W. Bush appointed Lawrence Lindsey. Former Treasury Sec. Paul O'Neill documented Lindsey's incompetence in Ron Suskind's book. "The Price of Loyalty." Lindsey actually believes in the debunked theory of supply side economics.

Obama correctly cites Sterling's previous experience and success as NEC director. Sterling is also rather progressive. There are not enough progressive voices in the Obama administration. Sterling will have credibility holding a cabinet level position.