Tuesday, June 3, 2008

The List: Obama's Economists

We've mentioned these before in individual posts. Here's a unified list:

Economic policy advisors:

Other prominent economists who support Obama:
Prominent finance people who support Obama:
(not actually economists)
Updated and revamped 6/9/08 to reflect new announcements and again on 6/28/08, 8/21/08, 8/22/08, and 9/7/08.

23 comments:

Lilly said...

you should also include Volcker on your list

Speculator said...

That is a very impressive list. If you listen to the business channels you would only think populist support Obama. There are some other great financial minds whom support Obama. I will tell you who @
http://theinvestingspeculator.typepad.com/investing/2008/06/what-do-buffett.html

RabbleRouser said...

It kind of concerns me that Paul Krugman is on neither Obama nor McCain's list.

Anonymous said...

We know some of these people don't support Obama on Trade. What do they think of Obama's support of comparable worth, or the insane pile of pork that is the Farm Bill?

Anonymous said...

This list is pretty short and weak compared to the list of McCain supporting economists. http://massdiscussion.blogspot.com/2008/07/economists-statement-on-john-mccains.html

Don Pedro said...

Paul Krugman is not on the list because as a NY Times columnist, he is not allowed to endorse. I think it's no secret, however, that he favors Obama and deeply fears what four more years of McBush would mean for the country.

I'm sure it's the case that Obama's advisers don't agree with him on every issue. This is always the case. On trade, however, I doubt there is much disagreement.

The list above is chiefly a list of advisers. Advisers are people the candidate and his staff talk to. This is clearly distinguished from mere supporters. (I threw in a few prominent supporters on the list as an afterthought.) The Obama campaign has not put together a list of supporters, and my adviser list is culled from various sources.

Thank you for the link that the McCain produced with a list of economist supporters. We will write more about this in the future. Frankly, it's disappointing that so many economists would sign a letter with claims that are contradicted by facts. See Jonah's post on an earlier version of the letter here:
http://econ4obama.blogspot.com/2008/05/mccains-economist-supporters-vs-facts.html

Here is the letter I sent to several prominent McCain supporters , based on Jonah's post:
http://econ4obama.blogspot.com/2008/06/dear-economists-for-mccain.html

Don Pedro said...

Here are short version's of those URLs.

Jonah's post:
http://tinyurl.com/65x986

My letter to the supporters:
http://tinyurl.com/6ly4ek

Unknown said...

No Warren Buffett?

Anonymous said...

Someone get these folks a bullhorn and a soapbox to stand on! America needs to hear what they have to say and they need to hear it NOW...

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous, the list would be a lot longer if it were just a list of ordinary economists who say they support Obama. That's what's on the McCain site. I can say as a Ph.D. economist, that most of my colleagues support Obama on economic policy grounds. The Obama list is not just a list of supporters, it's a very impressive set of leading economists who are advising Obama. This is part of what makes me comfortable supporting Obama. I am confident he will bring in excellent people and has the intelligence and temperament to listen to them and the judgment to make a good decision.

Anonymous said...

Warren Buffett is far from the richest person in the world...check some facts.

Don Pedro said...

Dear anonymous,
You're wrong.

Forbes, March 5, 2008:
"After 13 years on top, Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world. That honor now belongs to his friend and sometimes bridge partner Warren Buffett."

http://www.forbes.com/2008/03/05/richest-people-billionaires-billionaires08-cx_lk_0305billie_land.html

Rob Conzett said...

Can someone please provide me with some assistance? An Op-Ed piece appeared in the LA Times during the first two weeks of September, supposedly written by an economic advisor to Sen. Obama. The comments were consice, lucid and spot-on as to what I feel, needs to occur in the future. Without the title or author, I cannot retrive article from LA Times archives. I would appreciate a link to the author or the article itself. I was very impressed. Thank you in advance. Rob Conzett

Anonymous said...

some prominent business people have advised obama like Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. is jared bernstein on the list?

Unknown said...

Google ("do no evil") chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt has advised Obama? Google should be a company that everybody thinks of as the dark side of the internet. Look at this columun about how it is aiding culutral genocide in Tibet. http://owww.boiungboing.net/2007/04/23/google-china-and-gen.html And does anyone worry that this one company has too much power? Suppose you disagree with them and want to get your side out. How high would you be on the search list?

TotalRecall said...

Having corporate economists, like Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, as Obama's advisors worries me. I would feel a lot better if he had all independent economists, including Paul Krugman, advising him! We can't have this Greenspan hands-off free-market economy that enriches the corporations and pisses on the poor. There has to be oversight, which Rubin, Summers, Arthur Levitt, and Greenspan were strongly against!

Unknown said...

Actually, the financial industry, is very heavily regulated but if the politicians try to do favors for their interest groups no regulation will succeed. It's interesting that the hedge funds which are the least regulated seem to be doing the best. My worry is that the same politicians who are playing with the financial market are going to get into the health market. Actually, I feel safer when thousands of greedy capitalists are manipulating things then when a few hundred politicians are doing what's best for us.

Anonymous said...

Some one posts “... the list would be a lot longer if it were just a list of ordinary economists who say they support Obama. That's what's on the McCain site.”

So now there is something wrong with ordinary economists? I too have a Ph.D. in economics and teach in a graduate program. The short list of economists for Obama is impressive, but many have been long democratic supporters and advising and serving in previous democratic administrations. That is not evidence.

Give me the evidence of ordinary everyday working economists, not just the top pundits. Give me the wisdom and spirit of each and every economist. We who enter our corporate offices, our academic classrooms and governmental agencies influence the many that we come in contact. Most of my colleagues bend over backward to not let people know who we are personally supporting. In my role as a professor, I think it academically dishonest to push a political agenda of the left or the right to our students. To keep our objectivity is more important than to declare for one side or the other. Our job is to help our students and our bosses to analyze and to think and to reason, not to sway. So please do not offer your condescending comments about ordinary economists. And in return I will refrain after this sentence in offering equally poor commentary about liberal elite economists.

Anonymous said...

While busy taking personal offense to the apparently derogatory epithet "ordinary economist," Steven misses the point of the comparison between the lists of economists supporting Obama and McCain mentioned above.

One is an deliberately "short list" that references prominent economists. The other is a deliberately long list, petition-style, that includes apparently "ordinary" economists. In other words, apples and oranges.

The conclusion that more "ordinary" economists support McCain because the McCain list is longer is fallacious: apples to oranges.


Also note that the McCain list was published on July 7, 2008 ... perhaps at a point in time when continued deregulation of the financial industry still seemed like a good idea...?

I wonder how many of those "ordinary" economists might be rethinking their position given recent events.

Anonymous said...

Jeff says my post misses the point, but I was not saying that ordinary economists (apples) preferred McCain to the Obama list (oranges). What I was saying is that agency economists and economists that have been long pundits are not evidence. They are possible indicators of an economic advisory team, but not to be believed over the ordinary economists (or vice versa). For a democratic candidate who favors the little guy, how can this blog trash the little economist?

Jeff also says "Also note that the McCain list was published on July 7, 2008 ... perhaps at a point in time when continued deregulation of the financial industry still seemed like a good idea...?" Jeff, have you missed that it was McCain that called for increased regulation on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac warning of their failure and ruinous consequences of their failure. Don’t confuse a belief in deregulation in general (apples) with increased regulation in particular where needed (oranges).

Kevin Chan said...

how about N.Greg Mankiw's stand?

Bedlam said...

I thought he was getting out of the same old washington spin?

Anonymous said...

So does anyone know if this is a solid list?
alos check out http://www.spinwhip.com/obama for more info about obama.. we're really lucky you know.. we were this close from having palin in the office!!