What about Kermit Gordon going back to the Kennedy years? On Fri, Dec 22, 2006 at 01:51:10PM -0500, Paul wrote: > > A good point since Brookings has been a refuge for CEA & OMB economists > from the Carter Admin (Schultz, Bosworth) and Clinton (Rivlin, Gale). > > But I also see Orszag as illustrative of two additional trends. > > In the past the economists serving in government worked in Academia/think > tanks when their party was not in office, particularly the Democrats. They > had strong roots in academic research and often saw party politics as a > only a necessary means. In contrast, after his relatively young service in > the CEA, Orszag and his brother moved directly to setting up a "consulting > agency" on the west coast and getting large "consultant" fees from the same > industries/institutions he was supposed to oversee (for example, is first > big customer was an HMO, from public funds there were the World Bank and > small central banks). He has spent very little time in Academia and not > much time in think tank work that wasn't directly linked to power politics. >
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
