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Obama Should Draft Krugman

NYT columnist would do a lot better than Geithner and Summers

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 19, 2009 3:11 PM CST

(Newser) – Barack Obama’s economic team so far has failed to inspire confidence, writes Steven Stark for the Boston Phoenix. Instead of Geithner and Summer, Obama should pick a new man to lead the charge on the financial crisis: Appoint Paul Krugram, Nobel laureate and economics columnist for the New York Times, as top economic adviser.

Krugman is, unlike Geithner and Summers, untainted by a deregulatory past or ties to prominent bankers. His columns give “coherent and dramatic policy” recommendations, Stark writes, and he is a sharp, articulate communicator—while Summers and Geithner are both prone to putting their foot in their mouths. If appointed, Krugman could craft a user-friendly narrative of the financial crisis, helping the administration immensely in its efforts to sell the American people on a solution.

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (1)]

Chief economic adviser Larry Summers listens as President Barack Obama, not pictured, speaks to reporters during a meeting about the economy with Congressional leaders, Friday, Jan. 23, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Paul Krugman of Princeton University, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics for 2008, holds his Nobel lecture at the Aula Magna of the Stockholm University, in Stockholm, Monday Dec. 8, 2008. (AP Photo/Fredrik Persson, Scanpix Sweden)

Paul Krugman listens to his introduction at a gathering in Princeton, after he was announced the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in economics Monday, Oct. 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner meets journalists at the end of the G-7 (Group of Seven) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting, in Rome, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

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Whatever one thinks of Geithner, public speaking is not one of his strengths: one wag described his recent bank-bailout-plan announcement as akin to 'an elf giving a book report.' - Steven Stark

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Obama Should Draft Krugman