Obama Cabinet and Key White House Staff Christina Romer - Chair, Council of Economic Advisors (Cabinet-rank member of National Economic Council) Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley Co-director, Program in Monetary Economics, National Bureau of Economic Research Nominated: November 24, 2008 Obama’s comments: “As one of the foremost experts on economic crises—and how to solve them…Christina Romer will bring a critically needed perspective to her work as Chair of my Council of Economic Advisors.“Christina is both a leading macroeconomist and a leading economic historian, perhaps best known for her work on America’s recovery from the Great Depression and the robust economic expansion that followed. Since 2003, she has been co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research Monetary Economics program. She is also a member of the Bureau’s Business Cycle Dating Committee—the body charged with officially determining when a recession has started and ended—experience which will serve her well as she advises me on our current economic challenges.“Christina has also done groundbreaking research on many of the topics our Administration will confront—from tax policy to fighting recessions. And her clear-eyed, independent analyses have received praise from both conservative and liberal thinkers alike. I look forward to her wise counsel in the White House.” Others’ comments: “[Romer] will bring to the job: An expertise in recessions, and, in particular, the Great Depression. She has written, among other things, papers titled ‘What Ends Recessions?’ and ‘What Ended the Great Depression?’ An economic historian at the University of California, Berkeley, she has also researched the effects of monetary policy on economic growth and inflation, and the effects of tax cuts on private investment and government spending. While she has described herself as having ‘liberal Obama-heavy political views,’ she appeals to both liberal and conservative thinkers. She has found that tax cuts are usually associated with increases in government spending, for example. But she has also found that tax increases cause the economy to contract. And her dissertation showed, to the great delight of free-marketers, that the federal government has not gotten much better at stabilizing the economy since the Great Depression.”
—The New York Times Approved: January 28, 2009 Appointment Impact: “Romer will join Timothy F. Geithner—who Obama nominated as Treasury secretary—and former president of Harvard University Lawrence H. Summers —who will head the White House Economic Council—to become one of the key members of the president-elect’s new economic team. “The Council of Economic Advisers is comprised of three members who recommend policy options to the president. “As chair of the CEA, Romer, along with the director of the National Economic Council, will play an important role in creating the president’s policy plans.”